Columbia city council set to vote on camera system proposal

Columbia’s Downtown Leadership Council (DLC) is supporting the purchase and implementation of the FUSUS real-time software platform.

The city council is scheduled to vote Monday evening on FUSUS, which is a software platform for law enforcement that allows police to access any public or business-linked camera asset in real-time and review camera footage. Columbia Police say FUSUS provides a real-time crime center, allowing officers to have immediate access to video feeds on one single platform while responding to emergencies.

The DLC says downtown violence remains a top concern to its members, saying the October shooting downtown on Homecoming night wounded “and almost killed a Mizzou student walking to his apartment.”

There are critics of FUSUS who worry it could infringe on the Fourth Amendment. Our news partner KMIZ reports Council members Pat Fowler and Roy Lovelady have pushed back against FUSUS at meetings, expressing concerns about who the system will target.

Columbia Police have said that FUSUS does not not identify people based on race, and does not use facial recognition.