Latest news with #RealTimeCrimeCenter
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New DPD high-tech space combines tools to solve crime faster
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — At the beginning of the year, the Dayton Police Department implemented a new technology to help them crack down on crimes in just hours. The Real Time Crime Center is a recent upgrade for DPD, having already led to dozens of arrests since it began in January. 2 NEWS visited the room to learn more about how the high-tech space is solving crimes. In the first two months, DPD said it was able to make 21 arrests and assist in 25 more by using the Real Time Crime Room. The department says the room even helped them solve one crime in less than an hour. 'So start to finish, from the time the call came in to the time that we had the suspect and gun recovered was about an hour,' said Major Paul Saunders, DPD. The Real Time Crime Room allowed DPD to track down the suspect in a shooting on Rugby Avenue, along with recovering fentanyl within an hour. With situations like this, Dayton police said they are getting a return on their investment. 'It has been wildly successful,' said Saunders. 'And I will say, technology without the people to operate it and effectively leverage it, is just like boxes and computers and screens.' Major Saunders is the push behind the operation, telling 2 NEWS how the room uses several technologies all in one space. This includes over 50 public safety cameras, 911 call records, the FLOCKOS system — which allows community members to live share their video — and over 70 license plate readers from across the city. 'We've had the technology for a long time, but they have not always been able to be accessed in one place,' said Joe Parlette, deputy city manager. Parlette said the room was created with the help of grant funding, general department funds and support from the city. 'In this case, absolute support and trust in Major Saunders to do it right,' said Parlette. Saunders says the help keeps them at the top of their game. 'Political leaders have shown support for the efforts to keep us efficient and at the top of our technology game,' said Saunders. The city of Dayton is looking to receive grant funding to support similar technology to expand the fire department next. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
19-05-2025
- Los Angeles Times
5 Alleged members of ‘transnational' crime ring busted in Orange County
Irvine police have arrested four men and a woman believed to be part of a transnational organized crime ring, authorities said. The investigation began at about 1:45 p.m. on Easter Sunday, April 20, when a resident on Cultivate called the Irvine Police Department after getting alerts from his home surveillance system showing males unknown to him inside his residence, police said Friday. IPD officers responded to the residence, which had been ransacked, and learned that multiple items, including designer purses, shoes and jewelry, had been stolen. The resident provided officers with still-shot photographs of the suspects so they could be on the lookout for any subjects matching the description. An officer monitoring the perimeter spotted a suspicious vehicle leaving the area and initiated a stop. 'The driver said he was delivering food to a customer through a food delivery phone application, but could not provide the address where he delivered it. During a search of his car, suspicious items were located, leading officers to believe he may be involved in criminal activity,'' police said. The driver was arrested for allegedly being unlicensed. He was identified as a 24-year-old Fontana resident Jhon Osorioarias. 'IPD detectives conducted an exhaustive investigation of Osorioarias and determined he was involved with an organized burglary crew,' police said. 'Detectives were able to identify several of his associates. Over the past month, detectives conducted daily surveillance of the crew and were able to link them to other burglaries throughout Southern California,' the department added. On Thursday, with the help of the IPD drone team, Real Time Crime Center, and IPD detectives, an operation was conducted that resulted in the arrest of Osorioarias, and his alleged accomplices in the city of Fontana. The other suspects arrested were identified as Jesus Hernandezchavez, 42, Fontana; John Fredy Sanabria, 42, of Fontana; Duber Salarte, 48, of Fontana, and Isneidy Ortiz Valencia, 29, of Colton. The suspects were booked at the Orange County Jail on various charges, including burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of narcotics. Search warrants were served in the cities of Fontana and Colton, where multiple items of evidence were collected, including property linking the group to a residential burglary in Irvine, police said. Anyone with information about the case was asked to contact Detective Jeff Hause at jhause@ or 949-724-7085.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
How civilians are changing the way police work is done
Editor's Note: This is part two in a four part series. The other parts can be found at the bottom of this article. COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Inside the basement of the Columbus Police Department on 10th street, a unique partnership between officers and civilian analysts has formed. Civilians sift through hours of video footage to send updates to officers in the field to help move cases along inside the Real Time Crime Center. The crime center is room filled wall to wall with large monitors displaying cameras police have access to from across the city. Two analysts work at their desks inside the Real Time Crime Center (Chuck Williams/WRBL). Staffing the center with veteran police officers and investigators is a large ask, given the months it takes it get an officer trained. The answer to staffing lies in recruiting civilian analysts. At the end of a hallway in the basement of the Public Safety Building on 10th Street in Columbus, Ga. sits the logo of the Columbus Police Department's Real Time Crime Center (Nick Bentley/WRBL). According to Columbus Police Chief Stoney Mathis these analysts bring with them an expertise that offsets their lack of traditional law enforcement training. 'The civilians bring a different perspective because they don't know anything about the law enforcement side of it, but they know technology and we can hire some of these and they get criticized,' Mathis said. 'Some of the millennials, they come in there way more proficient in this technology than a lot of our seasoned police officers.' These civilian analysts are not alone in the center. Sworn officers work with the analyst to discover the investigative details the analyst may have overlooked. The rubbing of shoulders and cooperation helps form the culture of the Crime Center. The partnership is at the forefront of a fresh way to combine old school crime fighting techniques with 21st century technology. Sgt. Max Todd (Left) and three civilian analyst (right) work at their desks inside the Real Time Crime Center (Nick Bentley/WRBL). Mathis says the civilian analyst position offers a new way for people to enter the field of a law enforcement and protect their communities. 'These young millenials, although they are really, really intelligent, they don't wanna put their hands on somebody to arrest them.' Beyond the Beat continues in these articles: Part 1: Columbus Real Time Crime Center at forefront of dramatic change in policing Part 3: Real Time Crime Center offers Columbus Police information that leads to arrests Part 4: Beyond the Beat: How the Real Time Crime Center is shaping the future of policing Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
Beyond the Beat: How the Real Time Crime Center is shaping the future of policing
Editor's Note: This is part four of four in a series. The other parts of the these series can be found at the bottom of this article. COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Columbus Police leadership says the Real Time Crime Center is changing the way crimes are investigated and solved. 'I think it's a big part of policing in the future,' says Lt. Andy Farmer of the Columbus Police Department. Farmer oversees the department's Real Time Crime Center in the basement of the Public Safety Center. Farmer says the center is helping solve cases quicker, and with that comes a shift in the landscape of policing. 'We have seen over the last couple of years how it's grown to help solve cases quicker,' Farmer says. 'And I think that's only going to improve.' Analysts and officers work a bank of monitors with cameras placed across the city. They see in real time what the officers on the ground cannot see or what they did not see as they answered the emergency call. While the crime center is a useful tool in solving cases, an internal gripe has arose: 'Why isn't this a 24/7 service like 911?' The center currently operates Monday thru Friday late into the evening, but not overnight. On weekends, officers are on call. But that is likely to change. Mathis will be retiring next year, and tells WRBL he is committed to having the center fully operational around the clock before he leaves. 'We are at that point right now we need it 24-7,' Mathis says. 'We don't have the personnel – the people who are trained to do it just yet. But we will be there.' The answer to the personnel question comes in the form of civilian analysts. People from outside the world of law enforcement whose sole job it is to sift through camera footage and provide assistance to officers. Sgt. Adam Moyer, who is a veteran of the department, says the advantage to hiring civilians is simple: you cut down on training time. 'Sometimes it's easier to get a civilian employee versus a sworn employee,' Moyer says. 'It takes a sworn employee weeks, months, years to get through training. And to utilize the civilians you can put them to work pretty quickly.' There is some debate within the department about how the Real Time Crime Center will impact on-the-street staffing. The crime center has taken the policing in the fountain city and pulled it into the age of technology. With this advancement come change, and with the hiring of civilian analysts onto the team, the make-up of the police department has changed also. 'It is always going to be a tag-team effort. But it is already replacing boots on the ground. 12 years ago they had 488 positions allotted for the police department. I am not down to where I am telling them at 400 police officers – boots on the ground – and the Real Time Crime Center and let me expand that and I don't need 400 officers.' While the future of policing is changing, one thing was consistent when speaking to leadership at the Columbus Police Department: these civilian analysts want to help their communities. Beyond the Beat continues in these articles: Part 1: Columbus Real Time Crime Center at forefront of dramatic change in policing Part 2: How civilians are changing the way police work is done Part 3: Real Time Crime Center offers Columbus Police information that leads to arrests Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
Columbus Real Time Crime Center at forefront of dramatic change in policing
Editor's Note: This is the first of a four-part series. Links to the other parts can be found below. COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — A dramatic change in policing is taking place in the basement of the Columbus Public Safety Building. From burglaries to murders, the Real Time Crime Center provides cops with critical information, sometimes before they ever get on the scene. WRBL has taken a deeper look into the Real Time Crime Center. The first and maybe most important question is, what is the Real Time Crime Center? It's a room with video screens and civilian analysts working alongside sworn officers. These civilians and officers are feeding critical information to the cops and detectives on the street, and they are getting that information from more than 2,000 cameras scattered across the city. Police say what happens in here – the basement of the Public Safety Center – is having an impact on the streets of Columbus. It's an evolving technology used to fight crime, says Sgt. Maxwell Todd of the Columbus Police Department 'We have had murders happen on camera,' Todd said, 'we have had numerous hit and runs.' With an extensive camera network, the Columbus Police Department has expanded its reach. Here is how the Real Time Crime Center has changed the flow of information, according to Lt. Andy Farmer of the Columbus Police Department 'Many agencies, including us, start a Real-Time Crime Center with a police radio and a laptop computer or a desktop computer,' Farmer said. 'And that's all you got.' Columbus Police Chief Stoney Mathis offers this example. 'Say, for instance, we have a shooting at a liquor store, and they had video, and it took three days for a manager or whoever has access to that video to come in and download it on a disk or thumb drive. And we bring it back here and download it on a computer. We have to thumb through it to get the three minutes of video we need. Well, with the Real Time Crime Center we can get that immediately. If they are logged into our FUSUS system we can get that information immediately and the detectives will have that information before we ever show up on scene.' It doesn't work with a network of public and private cameras blanketing the city. 'All the city cameras are cameras purchased by the police department in public areas, whether it be on a public right of way, outside a public building,' Farmer said. 'There should be no concern with privacy in a public area.' However, as the city camera network has expanded, the software has allowed the integration of city cameras and registered business security cameras. Homeowners can also register their cameras, but it works differently. 'The difference between RING doorbell cameras at your house and cameras in public areas is we don't have access to any RING doorbell cameras whatsoever or any home surveillance cameras whatsoever,' Farmer said. 'We simply ask that you register your camera. And that gives us a list, of, hey there are cameras in this area, usually in a neighborhood. If a crime occurs in your neighborhood, we can contact you and ask you to look at your cameras and send us any information that might help us.' Beyond the Beat continues in these articles: Part 2: How civilians are changing the way police work is done Part 3: Real Time Crime Center offers Columbus Police information that leads to arrests Part 4: Beyond the Beat: How the Real Time Crime Center is shaping the future of policing Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL.
