DAYTON — A three-hour debate ended with Dayton City Commissioners approving a pilot project for a controversial new crime fighting system.
City commissioners voted 3-2 Wednesday night to approve use of the FUSUS system.
The FUSUS Real-Time Crime Center technology will provide live feeds to officers dealing with various investigations. Dayton’s pilot program will focus on downtown Dayton, where business owners will have the option to opt in and allow either constant access or access upon request to their private video streams.
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Police said the type of situations where this system could really come in handy is during shootings, like the one on a bus at a RTA hub last year. It’s the kind of critical incident that police believe FUSUS would make a difference in.
Feeds from any source in the program go into the FUSUS core and are sent to officers in the field. The organization with the cameras controls how much police can see and when they can see it.
Opponents of the plan worry about the safeguards not being adequate and potential adverse impacts on communities of color.
‘Any 911 call could trigger a police response. We are setting the stage for disproportionate police presence, not just in certain neighborhoods but all throughout the city,” Marcus Bedinger said during Wednesday’s commission meeting.
News Center 7 spotted hundreds of exterior cameras in downtown that could become part of the system for the pilot project. Dayton’s police chief said it should make officer response more effective.
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“It makes you situationally aware as you are responding to things, you’ll know what you are walking into, as you walk in,” Chief Kamran Afzal said.
Sandy Gudorf, Downtown Dayton Partnership president, said there’s been almost $3 billion of investment there in recent years. She told News Center 7 that she believes anything that improves safety will keep that momentum rolling.
“It’s a key factor when people are deciding whether they want to locate here or expand here,” Gudorf said.
The FUSUS pilot program will run from now until June 30th .
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