San Carlos resident John George has an idea for a digital neighborhood watch.
“Virtually every day on Nextdoor, you see footage of packages being taken,” George told NBC 7.
He has lived in the neighborhood since 1975 and although the criminal activity is usually relegated to thieves stealing packages off of porches, “two years ago there was a murder,” he said.
George’s idea is to pool the footage from home security cameras to check for suspicious activity after a crime has been committed in the area. He proposes creating a digital map of participating surveillance cameras that police could reference in an investigation. The police would then contact residents and ask them to check their footage.
“It'd have footage of the criminal act happening maybe, but they'd at least have footage of the person going there and leaving there,” he explained.
“Maybe they committed a crime here and ran down here and simply jumped in a car and drove off,” he gave as an example.
He added that the police wouldn’t have access to the cameras, and like any neighborhood watch program, it would be voluntary.
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NBC 7 reached out to the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego Sheriff’s Department about the idea but have yet to hear back.
