CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Oak Park Police have begun to ask residents to check out their home videos and provide them to police if questionable things or crimes happen on their block or on their property.
The Oak Park Police Department recently went online with a web page in which residents can upload video from their home surveillance cameras or doorbell cams.
Cmdr. Joe Moran said other police departments are doing the same thing and that, since Oak Park residents are pretty tech savvy, "We figured it would definitely be something that could benefit the residents of Oak Park, allowing them to be part of the process of helping us identify criminals or solving crimes that may have happened in their area or around their block."
Cmdr. Moran said even if residents aren’t sure their videos could be helpful when something happens in their area, they should upload the videos so detectives can check them out.
"They absolutely can have that option of uploading it to our website with a quick note telling us what they have on their video and it may or may not be of use to the police department," he said. "Even if the residents aren’t sure if the video is of significance, we would like that input from them so that our detectives could take a look at them and determine if there is any license plates or any people that are walking by that may have been of interest to us."
Cmdr. Moran said Chief Ladon Reynolds was in favor of the new video upload program as a way to engage the community and take advantage of the tech savvy nature of Oak Park residents.
To upload video, residents should go to www.oak-park.us/policevideo.