SAN DIEGO - The San Diego Police Department is taking steps to secure area schools without placing an armed officer on every campus.

The department is expanding its Operation Secure San Diego program, which links security cameras to laptops in police cruisers via the Internet. In an emergency, police can access cameras in the network to see where a possible criminal or problem is within a building.

"Instead of wasting time looking in areas where the suspect is not, we go right after the suspect," said SDPD Assistant Chief Boyd Long.

The SDPD has access to 100 cameras that are mostly in government buildings. They want to add more, particularly in schools. It would make responding to a crisis faster and safer.

"If it's an active shooter, I want to know where that person's at," said Chief Long.

Any security camera in any building can be added to the Operation Secure San Diego Program as long as that camera is connected to the Internet.

Police hope the system will also act as a deterrent.

"Someone knows there's cameras on the campus, maybe they're least likely to go to that campus," said Long.

"And they're only switched to the place when there's an emergency call," said San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who added "big brother" shouldn't be an issue.

He said police only use the cameras when a crime or other problem arises.

"The cops aren't watching people all the time," Filner said.