FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – After the abduction of Nancy Guthrie in Tucson, Ariz., local law enforcement officials are reminding the public about the importance of surveillance video.
Video, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office says, can be essential for the safety of you and others.
“We’re so reliant upon video to do our investigations. I know district attorneys’ offices, too. It’s one of the first things they ask: ‘Is there any video?’” said Tony Botti, public information officer for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.
Botti sat down with us to explain how vital cameras are to cracking cases in the modern age.
“Having one camera is better than none because you never know when it’s gonna come and help you out or help a neighbor out, or the community at large,” he said.
And while having a camera is a great first step, Botti says, following Guthrie’s abduction, making sure that camera is working properly is essential.
He said that to be effective, it should always be able to store footage long-term, even if it requires a subscription.
Like Guthrie’s Nest camera.
“The problem they ran into in this investigation was they discovered that she didn’t have an active subscription,” Botti said. “So basically, the only video was what you could see through a live view.”
Authorities were able to get the video with help from the FBI and Google.
But Botti says it’s a luxury you might not have.
“You don’t want to put yourself in a position where you’re waiting and hoping that maybe law enforcement has the pull to go to a Google and mine out that data. You want to be able to just access it right there at your home and give it to the detectives right away,” Botti said.
For investigators, having cameras online and ready to go in the area of a crime scene is a major bonus.
And Botti says they’re able to put out notifications to those who do by using Ring’s ‘Neighbors Verified’ site to collect video fast.
“We can draw a large enough shape around to capture everybody so that if they do have cameras, they get an alert saying, ‘Hey, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office is making a request that if you have video, please contact them.’”
