Almost every community has private sector and community facilities that have exterior security cameras operating 24 hours a day.  There are local and national companies that provide simple and inexpensive software that can link these cameras through a web-based network to the local emergeny management office to provide situational awareness and remote sensing over a wider footprint than normally available to the public sector.

Bringing this capability into one network is a relatively fast and efficient way to increase capability during the early hours of a crisis. Many corporations have emergency back-up generation, so that if the main power grid fails, these cameras continue to operate and send signals over the radio or cable uplink.

For instance, a public/private partnership formed in the Tennessee valley corridor between the state, federal and local governments with over 20 companies and universities developed a program called T-MAS, which can link together a large range of different technologies and sensor types using a suite of tools developed initially for the federal government but now being made available to local governments and universities.