A video camera surveillance system being introduced by Orland Park police would greatly expand the number of cameras watching over the village and aid police in responding to and investigating crimes, according to the department.
Police hope the Fusus system, which would link the village’s own surveillance cameras with those owned by businesses and residents, will give them real-time information over a broader area about criminal activity, according to Cmdr. Ken Rosinski, who oversees the department’s investigation division and is project manager for implementing Fusus.
“It’s only going to be as effective as how many partners get involved,” Rosinski said.
Police are working with Simon Property Group, the owner of Orland Square mall, to incorporate security cameras there into the system.
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Police are also in talks with High School District 230 to have cameras at Sandburg High School in the village linked to Fusus, as well as schools in Orland Elementary District 135, Rosinski said.
Orland Park has more than 300 village-operated cameras, installed primarily inside and outside village buildings, but also has cameras at intersections, some with license-plate reading capabilities.
“If we have the mall and schools on board, that would be well over 1,000 cameras,” Rosinski said.
Like many police departments, Orland Park officers already knock on doors in a neighborhood during an investigation to see if residents or businesses have video images related to criminal activity.
The village already has more than 100 homes whose owners have registered surveillance cameras with police, though police do not have a real-time link to whatever images those cameras record, Rosinski said.
“We always go and canvass in a neighborhood now, but will now have that information that people have registered and would have a map of people who have signed up,” he said. “We don’t want access to somebody’s live residential camera.”
Oak Lawn has had the Fusus system for quite some time, and Alsip is among police departments with the network, Rosinski said.
Based in the Atlanta suburb of Peachtree Corners, Fusus provides intelligence information that “enhances the investigative capabilities of law enforcement and public safety agencies,” according to the company website.
Orland Park is promoting the system to village retailers and other large shopping centers, Rosinski said.
The department plans an informational session geared for village businesses at 4 p.m. Nov. 16 at the police station.
For businesses, there is an initial fee for equipment to be installed by Fusus, and the cost depends on how many cameras a business has, Rosinski said.
The village is also promoting the program at connectorlandpark.org., where both homeowners and businesses can sign up.
Police chief Eric Rossi was invited to speak at a seminar held by Simon Properties, the mall’s owner, and “at that time Fusus was giving a presentation and he was amazed at everything it could do,” Rosinski said.
“We looked at it and thought it would be a game-changer,” Rosinski said.
The system is valuable in that it can give police dispatchers and officers in squad cars access to real-time video images, and video storage that can be used to reconstruct a possible crime scene.
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“If we have a 911 call from a parking lot at the mall, responding officers can in their cars see live video of what is happening,” Rosinski said. “We can guide our officers exactly to where something is happening and give them real-time information.”
The system can also give police a peek back in time, although how far back depends on storage capabilities for each location.
“Say police respond to a burglar alarm, and while responding officers arrive the video can show a vehicle fled the scene a few minutes ago,” Rosinski said. “The system can let us know if a particular vehicle was there that we can look for.”
While Fusus uses artificial intelligence, it’s not using facial recognition technology but is instead object driven, Rosinski said.
“Say a white truck was spotted and we can search images from cameras corresponding to that, or if someone ran out of a business and was wearing a blue hoodie,” Fusus can pull up those images, he said.
Rosinski stressed homeowners who sign up are just adding to the database of homes where officers investigating a crime might check for video images, and that the only real-time video would come from businesses.
He said the department hasn’t pushed yet to get retail establishments interested.
“There is a lot of interest, it is just getting the whole thing set up,” Rosinski said.
“We’re not watching these cameras all the time, we’re not a security company watching your business, but if we get a 911 call at a particular location it will pull up cameras in that area,” he said.
The system is meant to integrate different types of security camera systems, and Rosinski said the village during testing has worked to set up test sites. Results have been promising but he said the surveillance network is a work in progress.
“We hope to have a robust system in the coming years, it’s going to take some time,” he said.