New technology will shorten police response times and help keep officers safer in Pueblo. It's part of the police department's new Real Time Crime Center. The center officially launched on Tuesday.
Advanced technologies to potentially aid the Pueblo Police Department
Deputy Chief James Martin with the Pueblo Police Department said the real time crime center is a game changer for police safety and speed.
“If there's an armed robbery, we'll be able to give the officers the description of the subject, the vehicle, the license plate, and be able to solve these crimes faster and get officers there on scene faster and safer,” Martin said.
Martin showed News5 how the technology assists officers.
“If a call for service comes in that we need officers to get intelligence for, then they can go ahead and log into that call for service, pull up the cameras in the area if we have cameras in the area, and start giving them intelligence and information such as descriptions, vehicle descriptions, suspect descriptions, clothing, and they can have that information is there in route real time and not have to wait when they get on the scene to talk to a witness they have that information,” Martin said.
The technology also live streams police body camera video back to the center where four technicians and one sergeant are monitoring cameras.
“If an officer is in a fight or in a foot chase, we can pull that camera up and be their cover until they get somebody else there or air it to the other officers responding,” said Sergeant Jeremy Mathews.
Mathews said the body cameras are turned on when officers start responding to a call and remain on till the call is cleared. They are tracked by GPS so the technicians in the Real Time Crime Center can see where the officers are located on a map and click on their body camera feed to see what is going on.
“This gives us the ability to GPS tracker our officers, log into the body camera, see exactly where they are, and what’s up, and direct or other responding officers to the location. So the sense of having somebody else there with you in real time is very comforting and I know it’s gonna help our officers do their job,” Martin said.
Part of the center includes 28 advanced license plate reader cameras. The center also has installed cameras around the city in areas where more crime happens. One was placed outside a Walgreen's.
“Walgreen's actually requested us to place one of our camera trailers there due to the amount of retail theft that they're having occur there. So we went ahead and placed those cameras there. So now what we have now is we have the cameras that are focused on the front of the store so we can record and see in real time what's going on,” Martin said.
Police can also feed back live drone footage to the center.
“Technology always advances and you know, we're looking at whatever we can to put in the system and to make our community safer, our officers safer and our citizens enjoy life and Pueblo,” Martin said.
He said they would like to install 28 more situational cameras. The center is operational everyday from 10 a.m. to midnight. Martin said they are working to hire more technicians and have the center run 24 hours.
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