Privacy FAQs

Connect Cherokee is utilizing Fūsus to create stronger public-private collaborations and enable businesses and community members to work more closely with law enforcement. Public safety agencies depend on neighborhoods to mitigate and investigate crimes and be better equipped as first responders on the scene of critical incidents. The Fūsus system serves to increase community security while maintaining personal privacy.


How does the camera registry work?

The Cherokee Sheriff's Office camera registry is a way to easily locate the nearest cameras in a designated area during the course of an investigation, emergency event, or emergency response. In the past, investigators had to rely on eyewitnesses and piece together pertinent information over days and sometimes months. The camera registry gives private residents and business owners the ability to register their cameras to an online portal, only accessible through permission, for law enforcement to quickly and easily use cameras to create a map of relevant cameras that could obtain actionable evidence for crimes and life-saving data.


How much does it cost to register my cameras?

Registering a camera does not require any cost or additional hardware. Cherokee Sheriff's Office deputies will simply obtain a map of the cameras and will not have access to any live streaming capabilities. The registry makes it easier for investigators to contact camera owners for a digital footage request that the owner can fulfill that doesn’t require a police visit.


Can the Cherokee Sheriff's Office remotely access my cameras at any time?

No. Registering cameras means the police department will know where your cameras are located in the event of a crime or a critical incident. There is no direct access to any privately-owned cameras and the registry is only used to request footage if an incident were to occur in their vicinity.


Who has access to the camera map?

Only authorized Cherokee Sheriff's Office users have access to the entire camera registry map in their jurisdiction.


Can I unsubscribe from the camera registry, and change or delete my information?

Yes. Please contact connect@fusus.com if you need to adjust or delete your registration information.


Is my camera information subject to a disclosure in a public data request?

No. Your camera registry data is classified as protected non-public data, and is only accessible by authorized users of our system.


Will the Cherokee Sheriff's Office have a real-time streaming option?

Yes. In partnership with Fūsus, a real-time option is available through the FūsusCORE device with conditional access. Camera owners have the ability to choose how and when their cameras are accessible to the police department. For example, private businesses and schools may choose to only have their cameras accessible to Cherokee Sheriff's Office deputies when an emergency situation arises and they activate the live streaming capability via a panic button. Private residents and neighborhoods can also have the option to do so or completely opt out.


Can my cameras be accessed without my knowledge?

No. Both the Cherokee Sheriff's Office and Fūsus policies require the camera owner to give explicit written permission to access cameras for any reason. Camera access and settings are also entirely controlled by the camera owner.


Can the police department override my access settings to remotely access my cameras at any time?

Fūsus policy-based conditional access is a strictly one-way system, which means that the owner's policy settings cannot be overridden remotely by Cherokee Sheriff's Office deputies or Fūsus.


Can the Cherokee Sheriff's Office registry integrate doorbell cameras?

The Fūsus platform can work interoperably with most commercially available camera systems, but still has no access without authorization from the camera owner and the camera company as well. For example, RING brand doorbell cameras would need authorization from both RING AND the individual RING camera owner.


How does the panic button functionality work?

Cherokee Sheriff's Office, through Fūsus, can equip locations, upon request, with virtual panic buttons in the form of a smartphone app. In the event of an emergency, such as a fire, an active and serious crime, or active shooter situation, the panic buttons can be used to send an immediate alert to first responders and activate the streaming functionality of connected, authorized cameras. This is only accessible by users with valid login credentials to the Fūsus interface.


Will facial recognition technology be used?

Fūsus does not employ facial recognition technology or integrate with any facial recognition technology systems.


Does Fūsus utilize artificial intelligence?

Fūsus utilizes artificial intelligence to rapidly search video provided to the system by users in order to mitigate criminal activity. All AI use cases exclude facial recognition, but may be utilized to automatically recognize weapons, vehicles of interest, etc.


Is the FūsusCORE secure?

The data is secured with AES 256-bit encryption at rest, in transit, and in the Cloud. The FūsusCORE establishes a secure connection with TLS 1.3 allowing outbound traffic to AWS GovCloud. Once data reaches the FūsusONE CJIS-compliant cloud storage location, hosted on AWS Gov-Cloud servers, data is redundantly stored in multiple, geographically separated storage locations, or zones, to ensure over 99.9999% reliability and durability of data.


Is FūsusONE Secure?

FūsusONE, the platform Cherokee Sheriff's Office will use to compile all relevant information in one place, adheres to the highest standards of security for access to, transfer, and sharing of Criminal Justice Information according to CJIS standards. All data that is accessible within FūsusONE is encrypted at rest, in transit, and in its cloud hosted location. Access to databases is restricted by strict networking rules. All Fūsus Employees involved in CJIS-related software development undergo an extensive screening process, including background checks and fingerprinting.