Cutler Bay workshop highlights free camera hookups and environmental design to help small businesses deter crime

Raf Casiles, Cutler Bay's town manager, opened a Protect, Prepare and Grow workshop for Small Business Month and introduced speakers from the Miami‑Dade County Sheriff's Office who described a voluntary program that lets businesses connect selected CCTV cameras to the county's Realtime Operations Center.

The Realtime Operations Center is "a 24/7 unit that consists of civilians as well as deputies" that vets 911 calls, provides investigators with license‑plate‑reader and camera footage and supports large events, Detective Dan Espinosa said. He told attendees the unit draws on a countywide network of devices — "upwards of 5,000 cameras on a good day" — and tools including gunshot detection and open‑source intelligence to support responses and investigations.

Diana, the unit's lead asset‑integration specialist, explained how businesses participate: the sheriff's office provides a small "core" device that connects selected business cameras to the Realtime Operations Center, and "the business actually gets to decide like which cameras they would like for us to view." Diana emphasized the program is not continuous surveillance of business interiors but a resource investigators can consult when incidents occur; "there's no cost to the businesses at all," she said.

The presenters said the integration supplements — it does not replace — existing 911 and alarm protocols. When asked about internal cameras or bank panic buttons, they said existing silent‑alarm and dispatch procedures remain unchanged and the camera feeds augment those systems within the Axon ecosystem and related object‑tracking tools.

Willie Deoro, a long‑time sheriff's department prevention practitioner, urged businesses to apply low‑cost crime‑prevention measures known as CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design). "SEPTED uses the environment to reduce crime opportunities," he said, listing practical steps such as bright lighting, trimming hedges so shrubs do not exceed two feet, keeping tree branches high enough for clear sight lines, clear signage and regular maintenance to avoid a "broken window" effect.

Morelia Rodriguez, planning and zoning administrator, said Cutler Bay already incorporates many CPTED strategies in site‑plan reviews for new developments and highlighted the South Mall redevelopment as an example of landscaping and lighting intended to reduce hiding places and improve pedestrian safety.

Santiago Gonzalez, the town's building and code compliance director, described daily coordination with police and property managers to address graffiti, trash and lighting issues; he said quick outreach to owners typically resolves problems faster than tickets.

The town asked presenters to leave signup forms and outreach materials so code compliance officers can share them directly with local businesses.

The workshop drew city officials, code officers and business owners and closed with instructions that the session would be recorded and distributed by the town's communications office.