The City of Turlock and the Turlock Police Department are hoping that new technology can reduce the threat of crime and increase emergency response throughout the community.

Last week, the City of Turlock announced the launch of the Fūsus public safety program, also being tabbed as “Connect Turlock.” Fūsus is a program that allows the police department to remotely access cameras through a community registry in order to respond to emergencies faster, be better prepared to respond to situations, investigate incidents more conveniently and deter crime from happening.

“It allows us situational awareness when police officers are responding to calls for service,” said TPD Crime Prevention Officer Melanie Suffecool in a video statement. “If there's a crime that occurs at or near your business, police officers will arrive at the scene more equipped with all of the information necessary to safely respond.”

Businesses and residents with cameras are able to register their devices to help local agencies identify cameras in case of any incidents. If any incidents were to occur, investigators from the Turlock Police Department can easily contact the owner via email if they need assistance solving a crime nearby.

Furthermore, those who have cameras registered can integrate their devices with the Turlock Police Department, which would allow the agency to access live camera feeds in case of an emergency. Camera owners have the ability to choose which cameras are registered and integrated and when they are accessible to the police department. For example, private businesses and schools may choose to only have their cameras accessible to TPD officers when an emergency situation arises and they activate the live streaming capability via a panic button. Private businesses can also choose to give the department access after-hours. Private residents and neighborhoods can also have the same options or can opt-out from providing live access completely. 

Both the Turlock Police Department and Fūsus policies require the camera owner to give explicit written permission to access cameras for any reason. Camera access and settings are also entirely controlled by the camera owner. Fūsus policy-based conditional access is a strictly one-way system, which means that the owner's policy settings cannot be overridden remotely by Turlock Police Department officers or Fūsus.

Integrating also allows owners to view cameras remotely, communicate with the police department through a messaging system and share video surveillance.

To integrate cameras, a small fususCORE device that plugs into camera systems is needed. A link to purchase the devices is available through www.ConnectTurlock.com. Once it's set up, it enables camera sharing based on network settings.

“It's imperative that when officers are responding to a call for service or a crime in progress that they have the most up to date information possible, and this program allows them the opportunity,” Suffecool added.

To kickstart this project, the City of Turlock has offered the first 59 downtown businesses a full reimbursement for the first year. At the time of this publication, 49 cameras from around the city have already been registered and 69 others have been integrated.

Camera registration takes less than one minute via an online portal at ConnectTurlock.com. There, community members can also begin the integrating process and shop for fususCORE software.