Good Samaritan: CCTV Crime Tracker

Using widely available traffic camera data and video feeds to arm good Samaritans to actively combat criminal activity from the comfort of home.

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Inspiration

Recently there was a man that was shot and killed while pursuing criminals that stole his laptop containing important research data. While we don't want to trivialise such tragic events, many personal goods get stolen on a daily basis due to the fact that police don't have enough resources or manpower to track down criminals stealing under $1000. Had there been a method for victims to safely pursue their assailants, such tragic events could have been avoided. In addition, there have been several human trafficking incidents that require immediate response. We hope to address these issues by building a system that would allow citizens to help monitor these crimes.

What it does

We created a tool that accesses widely available traffic camera data across California to arm good Samaritans to actively combat criminal activity from the comfort and safety of home. This would also have the effect of solving the lack of resources within police departments to actively search for missing persons. This tool allows civilians to actively partake in informing the police on recent crimes.

How We built it

We pulled XML files from the CalTrans website that held data on all CCTV cameras in California. We then parsed it using ajax and jquery. With the information, we implemented all of the markers into the Google Maps API. After that implemented an algorithm that would create a search radius around the crime based on the time that it was stolen and the latitude and longitude coordinates of where it was stolen to give users an idea of what cameras to survey.

Challenges We ran into

It was difficult to parse the .XML files, implementing the google maps API, and to build out the frontend. Implementing the javascript was tricky for several aspects such as the search radius function

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building a nice user interface Integrating Google Maps API Build an app that could potential help solve crimes Displaying Video Feed Integrating a search radius function that narrows the search dependent on the latitude, longitude and time of the crime

What we learned

We learned how to parse XML Data. We further developed our skills in HTML/CSS/JS. We learned Google Maps API

What's next for Good Samaritan: CCTV Crime Tracker

Develop a back-end for the project that would allow investigations to be made where users can assist each other. Interface with social media's such as Twitter to allow for quick and viral response to people to scour these cameras together in order to better take advantage of the golden window of opportunity to gather more information. Develop easily install-able cameras to connect to the network so good Samaritans can help build out a more wide reaching monitoring network.

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