Southern Colorado police see increase in crimes caught on camera

Surveillance pictures and video are crucial to Southern Colorado law enforcement.

Investigators are getting plenty of help as of recent, with more surveillance helping solve crimes.

“It helps us make positive identifications, and it helps us eliminate people. We look at the video and we say, ‘No, that’s not the individual’,” explained Lt. Catherine Buckley with the Colorado Springs Police Dept.

“(It is) an excellent evidentiary tool for us. It’s one of those silent eyewitnesses,” Buckley added.

For instance, with this weekend’s suspected kidnapping in Colorado Springs, police relied on video to help figure out just what happened. It is helpful with a variety of crimes.

“We’ve seen some excellent video coming out of residential burglaries to even break-ins to cars in people’s driveways,” said Buckley.

The increased quality in pictures is also making for more cameras on the streets, according to a home security system installer.

“As the technology improves and gets better the prices come down,” explained Rob Nelson, co-owner of Watchpoint Surveillance.

More cameras can lend way to more evidence for police officers.

“Very clear images.You can see facial recognition, you can see license plates. Before, it took a high res camera to get license plates,” added Nelson.