Nov. 15, Baltimore — Serving as a backdrop for last week’s Secured Cities conference, Baltimore’s CitiWatch program is one of the most sophisticated municipal surveillance networks in the country.
According to Baltimore Police Lt. Samuel Hood, the CitiWatch program was launched in 2005 by former mayor Martin O’Malley with an initial deployment of 50 cameras. The program now integrates 538 cameras from across the city into the Criminal Intelligence Watch Center located inside Baltimore Police Department headquarters.
The cameras are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by specially-trained CCTV operators, many of whom are retired police officers.
