The city of Berkeley will explore whether a database of private security cameras might help police solve crime more efficiently according to the Berkeley City Council majority vote recently.

Under the proposal, citizens could report camera locations to the Berkeley Police Department. Police would create a registry, which would allow officers to call camera owners quickly should a crime take place.

Citizens would not be required to talk to police, and officers would not have instant access to the footage. Council members Gordon Wozniak and Susan Wengraf, who asked in their proposal for the city manager to study the issue, said it is clear to anyone reading the weekly crime round-up on this website exactly how much crime takes place in Berkeley and where it happens.

“Every week when Berkeleyside updates their weekly Crime Blotter,” they wrote, “it is apparent that most burglaries, car-jacking incidents, and other crimes take place along commercial corridors and major traffic arteries.” They said police and the community as a whole could benefit from a volunteer surveillance camera registry, which could make data more readily available to authorities.

While crime reports overall in Berkeley have been relatively flat in recent years, robberies, burglaries and assaults have risen, according to the most recent overview from the department.

The council members said the registry could be a good alternative to a city-run network, which would be prohibitively expensive and potentially raise even more questions about privacy rights. Similar systems have already been set up in Chicago, Philadelphia, San Leandro, Fremont, and Vallejo, they wrote.