San Diego police have begun a pilot program that gives officers access to security camera video inside their squad cars. Officers see it as the way of the future.
The program is a partnership between San Diego Police Department and the Hotel Indigo, located downtown. If hotel staff call the police, an officer in a squad car can click the hotel location on a Google map, and immediately see live video from the hotel's security cameras. Police say this will allow them to see crimes in progress, to see suspects and see which way they're going when they flee. The privacy of hotel patrons was a concern. But Mayor Jerry Sanders said cameras are already a fact of life.
"Let's just be honest about it," he said. "You walk into any lobby of any business now. You walk into a bank, a hotel... they've got security cameras."
Police chief William Landsdowne said he'd like to see the program grow rapidly as banks, convenience stores and other businesses link their security cameras to police computers.
