Logitech and CrimeReports.com Put the ‘Watch’ in Neighborhood Watch

When we launched Logitech Alert in August we did so with the aim providing people with an affordable HD video surveillance system designed to empower them to keep an eye on what matters most – whether it’s looking in on your house while traveling, checking in on the baby while you’re at work or monitoring your second home or small business. Today, Logitech announced a collaboration with CrimeReports.com – the leading provider of online crime mapping – that takes a new approach to security by integrating Logitech Alert and CrimeReports’s Neighborhood Central tool to improve the quality of life for not just one household, but its entire community.

Logitech and CrimeReports, are also working directly with law enforcement agencies to implement tech tools and create a neighborhood watch for today’s communities. In a press conference hosted by San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis and Mayor Chuck Reed, the city announced its plans to leverage Logitech Alert and CrimeReports.com Neighborhood Central to improve the quality of life for not just one household, but its entire community.

With a population hovering over one million, the Silicon Valley-based city is leveraging new technologies to combat crime. In 2009, San Jose experienced more than 3,400 violent crimes and 22,755 property crimes, and Chief Davis now hopes to help residents take a proactive approach to keeping their communities safe by using Logitech Alert and Neighborhood Central.

Through this collaboration, Logitech Alert – the complete HD video security system that lets you access video from the Web on your PC or Mac, and on your smartphone – will be integrated with Neighborhood Central. CrimeReports introduced the Neighborhood Central tool as a way to take a hyper-local, social approach to community involvement by enabling member to communicate online with neighbors, organize and chat with watch groups, share information and resources and connect with local law enforcement.

By registering their Logitech Alert camera with Neighborhood Central, users can opt to share video of suspicious activities captured on their Logitech Alert with neighbors and law enforcement in an effort to fight crime.

Take a look at coverage of today’s announcement:
NBC Bay Area: Fewer Police Officers? No Problem: Protect Yourself!

Author

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Logitech for Business @EricKintz

2 comments

  • According to news article in the San Jose Mercury News 12/3/2010
    San Jose man uses iPhone surveillance to alert cops to robbery at his house.
    Peter Chen was at work earlier this week when he saw something disturbing on his iPhone. A man and a 17-year-old boy were robbing his San Jose home.
    He could see it through a live feed of a (Logitech) security video (System &) camera he had set up and attached to his smartphone.
    He called police.

  • First off, as to my background, I work in the security surveillance market and am presently installing a professional 16 camera system in a warehouse. I know the industry and am always interested by new products available in either the wholesale or consumer market.

    That said, the Logitech Alert series seems to be a very positive move forward in the Residential, SOHO, and small business consumer markets. I am about to install my first 750e today for a family member and will be able to more thoroughly review its quality, functionality, and usability. I like everything I’ve read thus far and am excited to see the results.

    I would be interested to find more specs on the system though as the Logitech literature does not seem to have much on the technical side.

    Questions:

    Quality – I read on one site that the camera is 720p at 15 fps (very good for this product).

    * I love the 720p, but will it be possible to increase the frame rate to full time or is it limited by the chip in the camera?

    DVR Functionality – It seems the DVR is built into the primary 750i/e camera.

    * Is there or will there be a secondary application that could be installed on an internally networked PC to stream live video to and store it independently so as to benefit from more performance and storage capacity than is in the embedded device?

    Usability – I read on the previous blog entry comments that you may hardwire a cat5e directly back to your internal network.

    * Assuming you do this, is there any way around using both the camera power supply and the network adapter? It’s not mentioned anywhere, but since they both have mac addresses, I assume it’s a point-to-point wireless connection. Could the camera receive it’s power from a PoE switch plugged directly into the camera power supply and thus bypass the need to have 2 point-to-point devices sitting next to one another?

    Thank You,
    Jason

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