A new facility at the Gary Police Department lets officers track all of their crime-fighting technology in real time. The city unveiled its Real Time Crime Center on Wednesday. The room in the city's Public Safety Building contains more than a dozen screens, where three people can monitor camera feeds, license plate readers and shot detector technology.
Mayor Jerome Prince said it builds off of Operation Safe Zone, which lets businesses share their security camera feeds with police and lets residents add their doorbell cameras to a citywide registry. "It's something that, as I look back 10 or 15 years from now, I hope that this initiative continues, and it's certainly something that we all can be proud of," Prince said during a press conference.
Here's how it works: When someone calls 911, the call is still answered by the Lake County 911 Center. But when they dispatch Gary Police, "virtual patrol officers" at the Real Time Crime Center can also view the call information — and check to see how many cameras are in that area.
Police Chief Anthony Titus said that will help officers heading to the scene know what to do when they get there. "This allows law enforcement to use technology to be in places that we may not have physically been able to be in, in times past," Titus noted.
Mayor Prince acknowledged that the idea of police virtually watching over citizens can lead to privacy concerns, but he hasn't heard of any pushback yet. "In this instance, considering the condition of public safety and some of the incidents that have occurred in the city, I believe that overwhelmingly, the majority of the residents have embraced it, but from a business perspective, I can tell you that there is not one business that had any concerns," Prince said.
The Real Time Crime Center is staffed by existing Gary police officers, as well as one civilian staff member. It was funded by state and federal grant funding, along with local money appropriated by the city council.
Corporal Larry McKinley has been overseeing the crime center's creation. He expects that bringing together all of the department's technology will have a real impact.
"That allows all of our officers and investigators to actually get things in real time, so we can actually clear up and solve crimes at a much clearer and consistent basis," McKinley said.
Going forward, McKinley says police are looking to add camera feeds from schools, the airport and the Gary Sanitary District into its system.
