diff --git a/scripts/ZoneMinder/lib/ZoneMinder/General.pm b/scripts/ZoneMinder/lib/ZoneMinder/General.pm
index b14b08aae..90e7399ce 100644
--- a/scripts/ZoneMinder/lib/ZoneMinder/General.pm
+++ b/scripts/ZoneMinder/lib/ZoneMinder/General.pm
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ our %EXPORT_TAGS = (
       makePath
       jsonEncode
       jsonDecode
+      jsonLoad
       systemStatus
       packageControl
       daemonControl
@@ -536,6 +537,23 @@ sub jsonDecode {
   return $result;
 }
 
+sub jsonLoad {
+  my $file = shift;
+  my $json = undef;
+  eval {
+    require File::Slurp;
+    my $contents = File::Slurp::read_file($file);
+    if (!$contents) {
+      Error("No contents for $file");
+      return $json;
+    }
+    require JSON;
+    $json = JSON::decode_json($contents);
+  };
+  Error($@) if $@;
+  return $json;
+}
+
 sub parseNameEqualsValueToHash {
   my %settings;
   foreach my $line ( split ( /\r?\n/, $_[0] ) ) {