Beverly Hills Police Department Opens Virtual Police Command Center

The Beverly Hills Police opened a virtual police command center to crack down on crime .

Beverly Hills takes up five-and-a-half square miles but has over 2,500 cameras monitoring nearly every block, including a camera unit with flashing lights to let people know they are being watched.

The cameras can read car license plates from a quarter of a mile away.

"We have automated license plate readers which capture all of the cars coming in and out of the city, which tells us for example if a car is coming in that's stolen," Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark Stainbrook tells Inside Edition.

The department also has surveillance drones.

"We fly what's called DFR, drone as first responder, and what that does is we're up from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day so we can cover the entire city," Lt. Todd Withers says.

Officers in the command center alert officers to suspects' whereabouts as they arrive on the scene to make an arrest.

"We call them virtual patrol officers because they are physically in here, but our camera systems are so good they're really patrolling around the city," Stainbrook says.

The chief of police says over 200 law enforcement agencies have visited to see how they can start up similar virtual police units.

"My personal belief is you are looking at the future of law enforcement," Stainbrook says.

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