Real-Time Crime Centers
Chief Partridge has served the citizens of Oxford since 1989. Prior to becoming the Chief of Police/Director of Public Safety, Chief Partridge served as Operations Captain for the police department, supervising the uniform division and special operations. He is also an instructor in police media relations, executive protection, Law Enforcement Technology and special event planning, to mention a few. I was able to sit down with him and chat about the implementation of Real-Time Crime Centers.
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What are they and what are the benefits?
Real-time crime centers are hubs that combine numerous technology sources to provide public safety officials with a comprehensive intelligence for preventing and solving crime. Real-time crime centers can receive information from inputs such as government- and privately-owned CCTV, ALPR, CAD, and gunshot detectors so that law enforcement can view information in one centralized location. By centralizing information, it makes responding to and solving crime quicker and easier, and can serve as a force multiplier for agencies. When violent criminals are quickly apprehended, then the community at large is safer.
Real-time crime centers aren’t limited to just the jurisdictions where they reside; they are often regional, multi-agency centers that provide benefits to surrounding communities.This regional approach is particularly beneficial to the smaller agencies in the area that may not have the resources to synthesize information quickly and efficiently without the help of a real-time crime center.
Potential roadblocks and getting past them
For an agency that is considering standing up a real-time crime center, it’s important to know what potential blockers they may encounter and strategies for overcoming them.
Political Leadership: If the political leadership is apprehensive about establishing a real-time crime center, it’s best to have them visit one to see exactly how they operate. Once they understand how they function, their crime prevention potential, and the mechanisms for safeguarding community privacy, they may be more likely to support your efforts. This leads to the second potential blocker:
Community Buy-In: As with political leaders, it’s important to be very transparent with the community about the capabilities, goals, and privacy safeguards of real-time crime centers. Having open dialogs with community leaders and allowing them a seat at the table in advance will help alleviate concerns.
Financial Constraints: As with any new technology, there are going to be costs associated with establishing a crime center. Even with endorsements from political leadership and the community, budget constraints can delay or derail implementation. Grant funding is an avenue that agencies can pursue, and as of this writing, there are many opportunities at both the state and federal level.
Staffing: This can be an issue because the staff needed to operate the crime center may mean the agency either needs to hire or reallocate personnel. With the current financial and staffing challenges agencies are facing, this can be a heavy lift. However, there are ways to mitigate these staffing issues. One is by hiring civilian analysts to staff the crime centers rather than sworn officers or deputies. Analysts are often easier to recruit and hire, and their salaries are typically lower than sworn staff. Additionally, when a regional real-time crime center is established in conjunction with surrounding agencies, each can contribute personnel - even on a part-time basis - to mitigate the impact to staffing levels yet fully staff the crime center.
Note: Chief Partridge has had agencies from across the country come to his crime center to see how it operates so they can duplicate it in their jurisdiction. He welcomes any inquiry and would be happy to help other agencies in their efforts to establish a real-time crime center.
A model that works
In much the same way that real-time crime centers pull data from multiple sources and make it available in one location, Truleo does the same with BWC data. In addition to reviewing 100% of an agency’s BWC data - something that would be near impossible for human staff to do - Truleo pinpoints areas in the videos that are most important. Supervisors and commanders can see trends as they begin to develop to allow for early and effective intervention, and the Truleo Scope platform brings transcripts, video playback, and analytics together in one place.
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Interview Guests:
Chief Partridge - Advisor
CHIEF OF POLICE
OXFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT
Chris Sansone - Host
DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC PARTNERS
CHRIS@TRULEO.CO
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About Truleo
Truleo analyzes police body camera videos using artificial intelligence to help promote police professionalism. Truleo worked with FBI National Academy alumni to build the models that deconstruct officers’ language into professionalism and risk metrics to help agencies promote best practices, train new officers, and mitigate risk. To learn more about Truleo’s mission to improve trust in the police with body camera analytics, visit www.truleo.co.