‘More eyes and ears out in the sky:’ Dunwoody police open real-time crime center

DUNWOODY, Ga. — Dunwoody police are the latest law enforcement agency in metro Atlanta to open a real-time crime center, linking surveillance cameras from across the city into one hub.

The department converted its old roll call room into the command center, where a wall glows with video monitors showing streets, parks, parking lots and gas stations.

“And what this system does is pull it all on one pane of glass,” said Major Patrick Krieg of the Dunwoody Police Department. “We’re having it operated by our analysts that are funneling and watching that information.”

The city has about 80 Flock license plate detection cameras, along with traffic, business and residential cameras. Analysts staffing the crime center can monitor video feeds and assist officers on calls.

“We’ve been able to oversee officers who are working in the field and act as a secondary unit or support while that’s occurring,” he said.

The command center also features a map pinpointing the locations of officers and 911 calls, along with a readout of all dispatched calls. All of the video and data are accessible on officers’ in-car computers. Dunwoody police used $360,000 in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funding to create the center.

“It’s just more eyes and ears out in the sky. Now we have the technology not only to make Dunwoody a safer community, but it enables us to help solve crimes,” said Dunwoody Police Chief Mike Carlson.

The center has been operational for about two weeks, and police say it has already shown its effectiveness. Cameras streamed video of a fire at Brook Run Park, and detectives are reviewing it for possible criminal activity.

“We’ve had some DUI incidents that were captured on camera, and we were able to dispatch,” Krieg said.

Real-time crime centers in metro Atlanta have been successful in solving big crimes. Cobb County used its center, and its Flock license plate reader cameras, to catch a man accused of shooting five people in midtown Atlanta in May 2023.

“We can never hire enough officers to cover the whole city, and this gives Dunwoody the ability to leverage technology so that they can solve crime,” said former police chief Billy Grogan, for whom the center is named.

Mayor Lynn Deutsch said the center will also help prevent crime.

“If we can catch bad actors before they misbehave, we are impacting public safety the number one way,” she said.