The department pays $95,000 per year and can access up to 1,500 public and private business cameras, though it currently only uses 283. Fusus helped catch the killer from a shooting in March, Walek said, and the agency sees it as a tool that can help protect vulnerable people. Interim Clearwater police Chief Michael Walek told the Times that Fusus has been used since 2021 to locate missing people and solve crimes.

Hillsborough and Clearwater appear to be the only local law enforcement agencies working with Fusus. Nationwide, Fusus is linked to at least 33,000 cameras in more than 60 jurisdictions, according to a report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, an independent news organization dedicated to human rights and media freedom. Yet while Fusus promotes its product as a tool that can help keep the community safer by increasing police oversight, civil rights and privacy advocates say the technology creates a vast police spying network. The company provides a number of ways to use its product and offers several add-ons, including a predictive policing tool, searches that rely on artificial intelligence and gunshot detection. Without Fusus, police might need a warrant for that footage. Police can also review recordings of video and audio from those cameras. This includes business security cameras and home security devices like Ring doorbell cameras, according to interviews and records obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.įusus offers a platform that, with permission from private camera owners, links all of the cameras together in a network that can be monitored by law enforcement.

Police in Hillsborough County and Clearwater are using a surveillance tool that’s raising privacy concerns around the country as it gives law enforcement real-time access to security cameras in neighborhoods.Ī deal with Georgia technology company Fusus provides the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and Clearwater Police Department with a platform that can access footage from up to 2,500 local recording devices.

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