Just kidding. >> You want me to read them? >> Yeah, please. >> Okay, there. Jeff, you'll give us the good. Okay. Good morning. I'm at Mayor Patrick Brown. Welcome to our press conference on public safety, smarter technology, safer communities. Uh I am joined by regional counselor Michael Plesi chair of our community safety and advisory committee councelor Paul Vasanti our chair of public works um as along with our deputy chief um of police Anthonyari who is probably the smartest mind in technology and law enforcement in the country. We have from Genitech Inc. Miles McCarthy and Patricia Mlan um and Andrew Curtsis from Access Communications. Of course, I'm also joined by members of council who have been supportive of this initiative. Councelor Santos, councelor Power, Deputy Mayor Singh, Councelor Keenan, um Councelor Brewer. We have a goal, a very clear goal in Bmpton, and that is to make our city and Peele region the most inconvenient place in the country to commit a crime. And I hope organized crime is following the news so they can learn uh about why Bmpton would be a horrible place for them to operate. I'm proud to announce the city of Bmpton has now completed the installation of 360 degree cameras and automated license plate recognition technology at 50 intersections across the city. This is the top technology. It means if someone goes through one of these intersections, we're going to have their visual identification, their license plate, if they're part of a crime, we will be able uh to investigate them and hold them accountable. Bmpton is the first municipality in Canada to implement this technology at traffic intersections at this scale. The initiative reflects a strong partnership with Appeal Regional Police and our shared commitment to strengthen public safety, support victims, and make sure law enforcement has every tool possible to investigate crimes using advanced technology provided by Genitech, a Canadian leader in security technology and access communications, a global leader in camera technology. These intersection cameras will help provide investigators valuable digital evidence and information when serious incidents occur. I'm pleased to report since these cameras have been installed this year, we've already supported the Peele Regional Police in more than 200 police investigations where this digital evidence has been critical in investigations. And two of the most heinous crimes in Peele region, these cameras have aided. This demonstrates realworld value that these tools provide. This is a powerful investigative tool for police when incidents occur. And you know to really tell you how this all started and why we believe in digital evidence about eight years ago, seven, eight years ago, there was a number of shootings on the 403 and the 410. And I remember asking the chief of police, how can we have these shootings on the 403 and the 410 but not on the 407? And the chief explained, well, organized crime know there are cameras on the 407. That's why they these shootings have happened on the 403 and the 410 and not the 407. So, we got CCTV cameras on the 403 and the 4010. And we haven't had shootings since. It just shows you how sophisticated organized crime is. And we have continued to roll out these cameras in our city to make sure that we have digital evidence that can be useful in investigations. And just like the 403 and the 410 cameras worked, this is a message to organized crime and anyone that wants to commit a criminal activity in Bmpton that you will be caught. You will be on camera and that digital evidence will be available to Peele police to make sure that you are held accountable for your crimes. These are investigative tools designed to help police respond more effectively when serious incidents occur. It gives police a leg up when investigating crimes in terms of evidence that wouldn't be available previously and isn't available elsewhere. Whether it's a violent crime, a hit and run, an autotheft, um an extortion, any serious investigation, if you're driving a car away from the scene, you're going to get caught at one of our um intersections. This is about making Bmpton the safest city in Canada. This is a top priority for our council to use technology to make our city safer. And on that note, I'm going to ask Deputy Chief Anthony Dari um who has been on the cutting edge of all new technology in law enforcement in the country to share what this technology means means for the Peele Regional Police, how it's going to help keep Bmpton safe, and you know, two very significant investigations that these cameras made a world of difference in. over to the person I call the smartest mind in law enforcement technology in the country, Deputy Chief Odori. >> Okay, good morning and thank you everyone. Thank you for attending. Mayor Patrick Brown and our elected officials, thank you for the great partnership we continue to have when it comes to not just policing, but implementing technologies that make a difference within all our communities uh here in the Peele region. technology today is so important. It requires not just the implementation to be right uh but also a note to ensure that the community's privacy is respected as well and that we target the right people, those who commit crimes, those who drive erratically, those who put our communities at risk. And therefore, you know, as I always say is high-tech in policing has to equal high touch. We implement technology so that we have a greater uh relationship through transparency, respect with our community members and also identify those responsible for crime. So the partnership today really reflects a joint effort for policing here because listen in today's modern time in today's policing environment we need to implement technology tools that make a difference that are not just bright shiny and new that are there up on a pole doing nothing but really have an impact. Hey, listen. We've had CCTV cameras for 50 years, but without the integration immediately into a police building, I'm going to talk about a community safety operations center in a moment, they really do nothing. They're just artifacts of old technology. And so to implement new technology means that it has to be thoughtful, has to be done in a real time or near realtime manner so that police and their partners have access to information right at its very first moment. You'll see the technology down beside me here. Um these pieces of technology transmit right into our community safety operation center in real time. that is we have a human in the loop monitoring what is happening when they are notified of an incident. So this is not a surveillance tool. We're not conducting surveillance on our community. We don't use facial recognition with these tools. But we use the tools again in real time to provide situational awareness to our officers and to the community about what is happening. In fact, you heard Mayor Patrick Brown talk about two specific incidents, actually heinous crimes in our community which have been aided by technology. One, a domestic homicide with a kidnapping where the real time ability to monitor and identify the suspect also led to the safe um recovery of a child that was in a car. And this is through the integration of technology in our community safety operations center. Another one was the 360 degree camera which you've seen here identifying uh a culprit uh who shot two people at a local park in the community >> and that suspect was immediately apprehended in that moment. And so now that we see the benefits of technology with the respect and the rights uh of our community members, we now know that we can go forward. We can force multiply how we not only police but apprehend suspects. But let me tell you also take prevention measures into consideration. You heard the mayor talk about traffic and traffic safety. Cameras can be used to identify, you know, near miss situations, collision, high uh um high-risk situations where we can proactively now uh deploy our resources to make sure that we take an education and preventative manner. So today is actually a big day. You may think we're just introducing cameras, but we're introducing a suite of technologies in real time with a human centric lens to it to be able to really understand how modern policing has to go forward. So, thank you mayor elected officials again for providing us opportunity uh to um talk about our uh partnership. Thank you. Councelor Vante is going to share um other camera deployments that we have in the city and councelor Pleshi is going to speak about an upcoming community engagement opportunity we have and then we'll be happy to answer any questions. I would note we've got the experts from Genitech and Access here to speak about any specific aspect of the cameras and of course Deputy Odoari. Um councelor Vante. >> Thank you very much Mayor. Public safety is never achieved by only one organization alone. And it takes collaboration between the municipalities, police, technology partners, and of course our community. Through our vision zero approach, we continue to invest in measures that reduce serious collisions, calm traffic, protect pedestrians, and support safer neighborhoods for everyone on our roads. And this includes 210 community safety zones, over 150 speed cushions in neighborhoods, 42 pedestrian crossovers, 113 accessible pedestrian signals, 15 neighborhood speed safety zones, 254 crossing guards protecting students at 200 school crossings daily. These measures reflect the proactive people first commitments to safer streets for drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, and families alike. Thank you again, and I will now pass it to Councelor Plesi. Today's announcement is part of a much broader commitment for the city of Bmpton to improve both ra safety and community safety right across the city. As mayor, the mayor mentioned, it definitely reflects resident feedback and we've heard through town halls, surveys, countless number of daily con conversations. On that note, residents are invited to continue the conversation at our next safety advisory committee meeting, which will be held Thursday, August the 30th, August the 20th, 2026 at 7 p.m. at Cassie Campbell. Again, that's Thursday, August the 20th at 7:00 p.m. at Cassie Campbell and we'll see if we can get a prototype there for people to look at. Please be sure to save that the date. I'll now pass it back to Mayor Brown. >> On that note, we're happy to take questions from any media that have joined us today or media that is online. >> Hi, Mercedes Gaston Midday, CBC News. Um, could you speak specifically to what this technology is? How is it different uh from existing CCTV cameras and where are you installing them? What's important about the location of these cameras? >> So on the location, the city of Brmpton, this has been in collaboration with the Peele Regional Police and so we took their guidance on which intersections in the city would be most helpful to have them. Um when police investigate a crime, they'll sort of patch together um ring doorbell cameras, Roger security, home footage, and usually when it's very gray video footage, but we can follow that car until it hits one of the intersections and then we got them in highdeaf digital um evidence that these cameras provide. And so um it was on the guidance of of of the Peele police in terms of the camera capacity how it differs from CCTV. I'll ask Deputy Odoari to speak to that. >> Okay. Thanks. I think where it differs is the integration piece and let me just explain that. uh PE regional police launched their community safety operations center um almost a couple years ago now and what that does integrates all the technologies and sit situational awareness tools that we have in the entire region appeals. It gives us one pane of glass common operating picture to understand where we can deploy resources and what is happening. The new cameras in real time alert the community safety operations center that there is an incident or event or something that we need to pay attention to. We use technology to be alerted and then in real time we provide that situational awareness to our responding officers. This has led to these two major arrests where we're talking about homicides and kidnappings. These are incidents in our community that impact the feeling of safety and using technology to be able at the very first instance to do that. And also, as you heard the mayor say, we want every single person that thinks that they will commit a crime in Bmpton to know we're using technology and use it as a preventative measure. And I want to give you a specific example about that. About two weeks ago, we launched our new community safety response platform, which is a trailer with these types of technologies on it and gunshot detection. And we have put them at several high-risk locations which were previously known for gun violence and victim centric crime. And we have received zero incidents of violence or crime reported at those incidents. So we don't always measure success in terms of arrests. We also measure success in terms of prevention. >> Okay. And just as a follow-up question, I know you mentioned there's kind of like a league of other technologies. Um I saw something line online about drones. Is that something you'll be implementing as well? >> Well, I would love to see uh the Peele Regional Police to have um drone capacity, but obviously there's an approval process for that. And I know Deputy Odoi will be um more nimble um in making sure Peele Regional Police has that technology um before anyone else. I really believe technology can um can move the needle on investigations and deterrence, but I'm not sure if Deputy Odoi is able to speak to that because we're still seeking those approvals. Okay. Uh so we currently have a very robust drone program which has been operating for years here in Peele region. Uh and what we are looking at and are testing it in fact right now is what's called drone as a first responder which is an immediate call that we receive to 911 which automatically helps us dispatch drones in real time has drones sent to the area of an incident to collect very valuable data that we often miss in terms of response time and provide that at the earliest time. So um that is happening current day. Why why is that important like to have that immediate visual when something's happening? >> Well, I mean the first and most obvious piece is that there's a collection and preservation of evidence that needs to occur at the very first moment in emergency response. Moments matter. Seconds matter. And this is why we've spent money on technology and resources and boots on the ground to make sure that our 911 call times as we did three years ago went from 90 seconds to just about real time right now. So moments matter. The second piece is to understand what's happening in that moment to enhance community safety, officer safety during the time of response. >> Thank you. And just just to add to that one um comment, don't underestimate how sophisticated crime is and there's organized crime already using drones. And I know there's complications because it's Transport Canada, we also have the airport zone, but I think it's can be particularly helpful and so I think it's really good news that um this technology is being tested. >> Thanks. >> Grant first from the Grand Guardian, Missaga News. Um just a quick, how long is like where is this data being processed and how long is it being stored for? And I I have the same question for the uh the new program you guys talked about just not that long ago um with the parking assist vehicles for the the um the So I'm just curious where all that's being >> I can speak to the the uh storage retention and then destruction of data. So the destruction of data happens on the loop at the immediate time. Nothing is kept uh pending anything that would be used for perhaps a criminal proceeding or civil proceeding uh that is registered. So all the de data is kept on our service in-house here in Canada data according to data sovereignty uh best and leading practices and then it is destroyed at the most immediate moment other than those pieces of data that are used for criminal proceedings or other matters required before the courts. >> Oh okay. >> Yeah. And and just add to that, Graham, if anyone's concerned about their privacy, their privacy is protected unless they're involved in a act of criminality and they lose their right to privacy. >> All right. And just follow up just to confirm it was you said was it 50 cameras and what was the cost for this program? >> So we've launched uh 50 highresolution 360 cameras at this moment 50. Um the investment in the cameras uh was 2 million. Of course, there was additional costs to um have them um put into our infrastructure um and then of course ongoing cost of having this integrated with police. But I think the cost um is insignificant compared to the value already 200 times these cameras have been used in investigations. >> Any other questions? >> I sorry if I no one else has one. Um, I know you had the the recent extortion case here in Bmpton just uh maybe a week or two ago that you had released. Did these cameras have any impact on on that investigation? over time. >> So the cameras uh these particular cameras uh did not but the presence of CCTV cameras uh and cameras in general in the investigation were integral to the part of forming the uh uh grounds for arrest and the gathering of evidence. So certainly technology does play a role. >> Thank you. Um, sorry. Could we uh get a an an update right now on what's happening with this infant death that's happened up in Hansen Road just recently? >> Hey, listen. I would love to provide further information about this very tragic um incident that obviously has occurred. Uh there are no further updates than what uh we released earlier this morning. Um and so but stay tuned. Uh my information from my team here just before coming on camera was that uh the investigators are working to provide an update uh as soon as they can. Uh but there's no further uh information. >> Would you be able to hold up one of the devices and just maybe show us where the cameras are, how how it kind of works. >> So can you see them? Okay. So this is this have four cameras surrounding and then then they turn on uh maybe to get the professionals in here too. >> Maybe we can have access and genite that gives it the 360. >> We'll have the vendors by as well. Our partners at access communications as well as Genitech. >> You want to talk about them? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, for sure. >> In the middle. >> Come on in here. >> Thank you. Um, so this particular camera, uh, it has four different lenses on here that all operate, uh, different from each other. Uh, one of the big benefits to having a camera like this is it's one piece of infrastructure that goes up, one cable that connects it into the video management system, but four completely separate devices, which provides a lot of extra value. Uh, these can be positioned into different areas. So for example, we can look down all four streets in an intersection uh to provide a lot of situational awareness. >> So this is a license plate recognition camera. These are designed to track license plates used for situational awareness throughout the city. What this does is eventually tries to figure out patterns of traffic and how they move. This camera is made in Canada. It's bulletproof. It can fall down from 30 feet. We've already had one or two intersections where this has happened. Um, and it's made in Canada, so this is pretty much straightforward. Yeah. >> An audio recording. >> This one is not built for audio. >> Mine is not. >> Okay. I think that >> I mean this is funded from property taxes. I would say by and large our um community safety initiatives are all funded by property taxes of the Peele Regional Police 97% is um of funding comes from property taxes, 3% from grants from other levels of government. Um and this is something that's a priority to our council, community safety. >> Last question. >> Yeah. So, are they all being installed in Bmpton or some of them in Missaga or >> These 50 cameras are all being installed in in Bmpton. It's uh a program sponsored by the city of Bmpton. >> Thank you. Was there time? >> Thank you everyone. >> Photo a group photo here.