TULSA, Okla. — Community involvement can be critical to an investigation, and that’s why the Tulsa Police Department is launching a new program to help fight crime.
Surveillance videos can reveal what happened at the scene of a crime.
Miguel Wickert’s video captured a horrific crash that showed a driver colliding with a Tulsa fire truck on its way to a call on Feb. 26.
2 News learned that the driver, Keiosha Rucker, is facing five counts of manslaughter and one count of driving under the influence.
“Our Ring camera on the back deck captured a portion of the accident involving the fire engine right here off of 41st street, and in that situation, that car was full of children. A really terrible and unfortunate thing,” said Wickert.
Now, the Tulsa Police Department is asking the public to participate in a camera registration program to enhance emergency preparedness.
The department will ask permission to use your footage but Real Time Information Center Commander Jacob Johnston said it’s a time saver having your camera registered.
“It’s not always something where we can make contact with them depending on the time of day that it occurs, so by registering your camera it allows us to reach out to you through an email or through a phone number that you provide to us and ask you and review your video to see if there is anything related that occurred and then share that video with us,” said Johnston.
People like Wickert said they are for the program.
“If what I have in place can help our community, then I’m in favor of that, and I think with anything right, if there’s checks and balances, then why not," Wickert said.
However, some aren’t so sure.
We found posts on the Tulsa Police Department Facebook page from people who are worried about overreaching surveillance.
TPD is hoping to calm those fears.
‘”It really is allowing us the ability to communicate more rapidly with people. We’re not integrating with your cameras, so we don’t have access to the live video feed, and we don’t have access to any of the video that you are collecting at your residence. What this allows us to do is for us to ask you help participate in the case,” said Johnston.
Register your camera through the Tulsa Police Department website— click on the resources tab and then click on register your camera.
It’s free for homes; however, businesses will be charged a fee for the integration and installation of giving first responders access to their camera feed in case of an emergency.
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