Local jewelry store plans to utilize new video-sharing camera program

Raleigh police are launching a video-sharing public safety program for the Raleigh community.

The system, called ConnectRaleigh, allows people to register cameras or integrate cameras with FususCORE. In this region, Rocky Mount and Fayetteville are currently using this program and have seen success.

The program is a quick and efficient way to help keep the Raleigh community safe by solving crimes faster.

Level 1 of the program allows homeowners and businesses to register their cameras to help identify area cameras in case of an incident or crime. An investigator from the Raleigh Police Department (RPD) will contact you by email if assistance is needed to solve a crime.

Level 2 gives RPD direct access to cameras incase of an emergency or crime by utilizing FususCORE.

By purchasing this device, you have the option to have RPD access some or all of your cameras. Sharing your camera data with RPD helps to keep you safer by providing advanced details of emergencies or criminal activities.

Tim Hackim, owner of CMI Jewelry, prioritizes customer safety at his store. “They feel very safe, and that’s the biggest thing to me, leaving the store at night with the cameras and things and lights, we feel safer that way.”

The store has two sets of doors with a lock to buzz you in, and cameras are everywhere – 18 cameras are inside the store and 8 are outside. The store has many more cameras since its robbery in 2003.

Three robbers smashed three cases, stealing CMI’s jewelry in less than 30 seconds.

According to Raleigh police, so far more than 220 cameras are registered and more than 460 are integrated with FususCORE.

Irving Joyner, a civil rights attorney and professor at North Carolina Central University law school, says while crime is on the rise, technology is expanding to combat it.

“There is an escalating concern about crime, and rise in crime in public spaces and those concerns are such that are going to support this notion," Joyner said, “It’s another effort of big brother. It’s watching, and watch, and will be watching what is going on around you.”

Hackim said he feels that implementing ConnectRaleigh inside his store is an invasion of privacy for his business and customers, but he plans to integrate his outside cameras to provide more security and safety.

“I think it would be easier just for them to have access so that if anything came up, anything happened, they could look at it on their own and be able to know quicker than getting back with me,” Hackim said that customers feel so safe in his store that people sit their purses down to walk around the store. “I think any little thing that you can do to let people know that you’re protected, you protect yourself.”

RPD has not announced an official launch date yet.

To register or integrate your cameras, visit ConnectRaleigh.org.

Davia Pugh is from Charlotte, NC. She's a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, working towards a master's in mass communication.