Smile, You're on Candid Camera

ACHD has a network of cameras at various intersections around Ada County. In fact, you can view the various intersections on line. What you can't do, of course, is actually manipulate those cameras to see different views or closer or further away. That is a function of ACHD's traffic management center.

About three months ago, ACHD Commissioner's signed an agreement with the Ada County Sheriff's Office to allow the Ada County Dispatch Center to control the ACHD cameras after hours. The Sheriff felt this would be a valuable tool for them to provide enhanced law enforcement to the community.

Turns out they have some good examples of how using the cameras helped Ada County citizens.

Dispatchers witnessed a 3 on 1 battery in progress in front of one of the Boise downtown bars (a regular occurrence I understand). Dispatch was able to send the Boise Police Department during the incident who made the arrests and got the victim to the hospital.

Someone torched the old East Junior HS building recently. The dispatchers, using the cameras were able to direct the Boise Fire Department and call for extra help. This allowed dispatcher's to help the firefighters by having not only the audio, but the video as well.

There was a foot pursuit near St Luke's Hospital. Since we don't have helicopters in the Boise area, dispatchers followed the pursuee by camera and was able to help the police make the arrest.

It's nice that the taxpayers are getting their dollars stretched through cooperation.

If you run across a malfunctioning traffic signal, you can report that signal to tellus@achdidaho.org. I prefer however, to call the traffic management center directly at 387-6190. If the signal has the new controllers in place, oftentimes the signal can be restored instantaneously.

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