Patrick Swanson

It was blind luck that a pit bull running aggressively at two Jamestown police officers on Wednesday was caught on neighborhood surveillance video.

Area police agencies and Patrick Swanson, Chautauqua County district attorney, are trying to remove the element of luck in the future by creating a voluntary database of neighborhood surveillance cameras.

Swanson on Friday announced the initiation of the “Community CrimeCam” program. Modeled after similar initiatives across the state and country, the program aims to enhance law enforcement’s crime solving ability while linking to the community.

“If you have an outdoor surveillance system you can volunteer your name, address and telephone number,” Swanson said. “The information would then be put into a database and plotted on a map for reference when a crime is committed. Then, if we have a suspect or vehicle description for a crime in your area and we know you have cameras outside, we can contact you and ask if you, or we, can review your footage to see if you captured any images that can help solve the case.”

Households with outdoor video surveillance/recording systems can join take part in the program, which has been used by other DA offices across the county, Swanson said. The database will help investigators identify, track and catch suspects in many cases, such as shootings, thefts and home burglaries.

“We’ve had a number of cases in the past three years where we have found private surveillance footage to be quite useful,” Swanson said. “Right now, that footage is found after detectives spend hours canvasing a neighborhood asking businesses and homeowners if they have any relevant footage.”

“The database would save our officers and detectives a lot of time and leg work now expended to figure out who in a certain area might have cameras,” said Harry Snellings, Jamestown police chief. “We hope that this project not only helps us with cases but brings the community and law enforcement closer together in an effort to keep our homes and communities safe. Through the program our detectives will talk to residents in the community a lot more. Citizens will get to see us and interact with us on a more personal level because they get to help out the police department.”

Information for the database can be entered by visiting the Chautauqua County District Attorney Of website at chautauquany.seamlessdocs.com/f/CrimeCam. Information on the District Attorney’s Facebook page will also lead interested participants to the form. The project will go online soon.

“The big hurdle is getting residents comfortable with providing us their information,” Swanson said.

The information shared by the public does not give law enforcement access to someone’s camera footage. The information gathered will be secure and be shared with anyone other than law enforcement. The Community CrimeCam program is voluntary, and the volunteer only is indicating that they have exterior cameras and that they are comfortable with being contacted. David Ortolano, Dunkirk police chief, said he’s well aware Dunkirk residents may have privacy concerns but stresses that even when residents volunteer their contact information for the database, an officer can ask them only to view their footage and then provide the department with images of whatever portions of the recording that will help in the investigation.

“Whatever footage they provide to us will be confidential,” Ortolano said. “We’ll ask them to review their footage for a certain block of time so long as they are comfortable with it. A suspect might have walked across their yard and they didn’t even know about it because their home didn’t get burglarized, but their neighbor’s did, or some other crime occurred in the area.”

Sheriff Joe Gerace added, “Even in rural areas, you might capture the suspect vehicle traveling by your house. Depending on the circumstances of the case, your video could be a big break in the investigation.”

Jamestown and Dunkirk neighborhoods will be the first to be canvassed by police, Swanson said.

“We’ll be out asking the community for their help.”

Anyone with an exterior surveillance system who lives in the county is encouraged to share their information.

“You never know what your cameras might pick up. You could just capture footage that leads to an arrest and conviction,” Swanson said.

To be added to the District Attorney’s Office Community CrimeCam database, residents can sign up at chautauquany.seamlessdocs.com/f/CrimeCam or visit www.facebook.com/patrickswanson2016.