Now more than ever, Manhattan businesses and residents are employing their own video security systems to enhance the safety of residents, employees, and visitors on their properties. When a crime occurs, recordings from those systems frequently become essential to understanding what took place, identifying the person responsible, or even proving someone’s innocence.
DANY Community-Led Evidence Archive, or “DANY CLEAr,” is a community-led resource designed to increase coordination between the Manhattan D.A.’s Office and Manhattan businesses and residents who employ video security systems. It functions as a digital phonebook containing the video cameras’ locations, contact person(s), and some general information about the cameras themselves.
The program is completely voluntarily—Manhattan residents and businesses can choose whether or not to participate—and does not give the D.A.’s Office access to the footage itself. It functions solely to point investigators to the location of potentially helpful security cameras and identify the person the Office can contact to request a copy of previously recorded video footage.
This information is confidential and will not be published or publicly released. DANY CLEAr can only be accessed by personnel in the Manhattan D.A.’s Office. The Office will incorporate this information into maps, resources, and tools we use to organize information we already have about video cameras in public spaces, including those belonging to other city agencies like the New York City Police Department.