Candid camera: Futuristic police camera system will track people, pickup movement in parts of Baton Rouge – WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - A high-tech law enforcement camera system is online, tracking people's movements in 19 locations and growing.

Baton Rouge Police discussed the project in a news conference Wednesday.

Police won't reveal all the locations where cameras are mounted, but said angles include shots from above city hall where 80 different views of downtown are fed back to police.

The camera system goes online amid record-setting homicides in East Baton Rouge.

"I had a gentleman that was killed on Thomas Delpit, East Boulevard; That's where I live," exclaimed Councilwoman Carolyn Coleman when discussing the cameras. "Let them know, that a lot of this killing, must stop."

City officials hope the camera system will help them track the evil-doers with ease and at rapid pace.

The cameras pick up motion and track movements.

"It gives us standard motion detection, it gives us person detection, meaning the cameras ability to look at movement and you know, based what [the camera is] programed to do, it looks like it might be a person. They're actually able to, depending on how well it's being received at that time, detect the difference between gender, age, hair color or clothing color," said Lt. Will Clarida of the Baton Rouge Police department.

"When something goes 'red' it'll pick up something. [A] car going the wrong way on a one-way street; A crowd [that suddenly] starts running... Even just 3 to 4 people running at once," will be alerted and tracked.

The system can send text or email alerts and, the police department hopes to communication to radios next.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said he is already identifying high-crime areas for cameras to be installed.

"People want these shootings to stop. So, this whole thing of 'people don't want any of them there, they don't want cameras,' that is just not the truth. The truth is, people want to feel safe, people want us to continue to arrest those bad actors, this is just another tool," the chief said Wednesday.

In a next phase of the project, cameras are expected to be installed in the Gus Young and Brookstown areas along with Dixie and Tigerland communities.

Raw footage is being saved for 45 days but certain pieces of video can be isolated and held for longer.

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Candid camera: Futuristic police camera system will track people, pickup movement in parts of Baton Rouge - WBRZ