Technology Helps Fremont Neighbors Stay Safe

Neighborhoods using technology to help keep their streets safe is not unique to the Bay Area, but in one neighborhood it's not only helping to detour crime, it's helping deter it

A Fremont neighborhood once plagued by monthly break-ins, has seen a big turn-around after going high tech.

Residents of the Scott's Creek Terrace neighborhood pooled their money together late last year to purchase high definition cameras.

Positioned at the entrances to the neighborhood, the cameras now capture photos of every car that drives through the area.

"They come in here they're going to get identified. That's basically it. We catch license plates coming in and out of this neighborhood," said Ron Douglas, who's help lead the neighborhood effort.

And the cameras appear to be doing the trick.

"Since we put them in we have not had a daytime break-in and we put them in in October," Douglas said.

The Fremont Police Department hopes others will follow the neighborhood's lead.

They're encouraging residents and businesses not only to install cameras, but to notify police that they have them.

The department has added a registration form on their website, allowing the community to register private cameras with police.

"We're asking they let us know about it so if we go out to an area where cameras are we can contact them in an effort to solve crime," Fremont Police Spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said.

So far, more than 200 residents and businesses have signed on and it seems to be paying off.

Just Monday, police used surveillance video from a Lucky store to help identify the suspect they say kidnapped a 16 year old girl.

"If you're going to come to Fremont it's likely you're going to be caught on camera and that video is going to come to us, and we're going to actively use it to find you," Bosques said.

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