Garland, like many communities, has seen an increase in private surveillance systems. Businesses, residences, and property owners use them to effectively prevent crime and capture images to help police solve crimes and identify criminals. To assist our community partners in identifying footage that may assist in a criminal investigation, the Garland Police Department has created the Garland Video Crime Watch (VCW) program. An extension of our existing Neighborhood Crime Watch programs, it allows citizens to voluntarily add their video systems to a map that can be used by officers and investigators to quickly canvas an area for possible video evidence. By bridging technology and our community, this initiative will help the Garland Police Department and our community to quickly identify and recover critical video footage related to criminal investigations.
How does it work?
For residents and businesses, follow this link (Garland Video Crime Watch Survey) and complete the survey. Please note, the system is strictly voluntary and cannot provide direct access to any surveillance system. Once completed, double-check the pin map to ensure an accurate location and hit “submit”. To update information or to be removed from the program, please contact the Program Administrator at the number or email below.
If a crime occurs, a police officer or detective can review the interactive map to identify locations that may have footage to assist in an investigation. This can include footage of an offense or any aspect of a case. The map will provide contact information for who can access the stored footage and how to contact them. That person can then review their system to identify any footage that might be useful to an investigation and re-contact the officer or investigator to provide additional information or access to the footage.
The goal is to provide a simple process for investigators and officers to identify citizens and businesses that have systems and are willing to assist in criminal investigations.
NOTE: The system is strictly voluntary and cannot provide direct access to any surveillance system.
Information provided by city of Garland.