New Real Time Crime Center helps ECSO, PPD spot and solve crimes quicker

A row of large, wall-mounted monitors displayed maps of Escambia County and real-time video feeds of its streets and intersections.

They were under constant observation by a team of crime analysts, who scanned them along with the monitors on their desks displaying their own sets of maps, dispatch logs and databases.

The new office, the Real Time Crime Center unveiled Thursday afternoon at the Escambia County Sheriff's Administration building, will provide crime analysts key access to information and data to aid law enforcement officers in solving crimes quicker, Sheriff Chip Simmons said.

The RTCC, which also houses the department's relatively new ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, is meant to increase intelligence, efficiency and safety in law enforcement response and public safety throughout Escambia County and the city of Pensacola.

"This is a state-of-the-art technology that is going to be a gamechanger for local law enforcement in the apprehension and detection of crime," Simmons said during a tour of the facility Thursday.

Simmons previously told the News Journal that the RTCC, which cost the county nearly $1 million from the local option sales tax, will provide deputies and dispatchers real-time intelligence that "will serve the citizens of Escambia County."

The sheriff said one example of the efficiency of their new system occurred Wednesday night when two individuals reportedly robbed a local Verizon store by detaching multiple cell phones from their cables. Normally, it could take investigators multiple hours or day or even weeks to find the suspects after they drive off, but the RTCC drastically shortened the investigation.

Investigators obtained store surveillance of the suspects and their license plate, and since Simmons placed two mobile license plate readers near Pensacola Beach in preparation for spring break, the RTCC discovered that over the course of several days, a car with the same license plate had crossed the toll bridge every day at between 8 and 8:30 p.m.

So, analysts and investigators told the beach deputies to be on the lookout for that license plate, and Thursday night deputies made a traffic stop on the suspects and arrested them for the Verizon robbery.

"That's just the tip of the iceberg on what this Real Time Crime Center can do," Simmons said.

The city of Pensacola has also partnered with the county to include ShotSpotter locations and live video feeds in the RTCC, along with two Pensacola Police Department analysts to work alongside the ECSO's analysts, which Mayor D.C. Reeves says will make Pensacola a safer community.

"When someone commits a crime in the city of Pensacola or in the county they're not making decisions about whose jurisdiction it is, they're just making bad decisions that impact people negatively," Reeves said. "We are certainly appreciative of being able to put that synergy, those resources, together to make us a stronger police force within the city limits."

New ECSO Star Network will looks to increase criminal surveillance gathering

The backbone of the RTCC's real-time video feed lies in the Fusus software that "extracts and unifies live video, data and sensor feeds from virtually any source, enhancing the situational awareness and investigative capabilities of law enforcement agencies," according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs.

That software is fed through Fusus cores that allow law enforcement to tap into live feeds, and Simmons says private businesses and citizens can be a part of their surveillance system dubbed the Star Network.

"Businesses can purchase the core themselves, and then voluntarily add their system to our Real Time Crime Center," Simmons previously told the News Journal. "If you have a business on say (U.S. Highway) 29, and we have businesses with cameras (on Highway 29), you can imagine the network that we would have access to if something were to happen."

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If adding your home security system to the RTCC sounds like a privacy issue, Simmons says not to worry. The integration of private business and private homeowners works slightly different than the continuous live feed and recordings from public entities.

If a homeowner elects to add their camera system to the RTCC, their footage is still private and either the ECSO or PPD would request a specific amount of footage over a specific period of time if authorities believe criminal activity occurred. The homeowner would then receive a message from law enforcement requesting the footage from a period of time and the homeowner can either deny or accept the request.

This would further streamline law enforcement's ability to access camera footage when dealing with crimes, meaning instead of deputies spending time traveling to a specific location to request camera footage, they could have near-immediate access through the RTCC.

Last year, Pensacola Police Chief told the News Journal that technology tools like those in the RTCC would make local law enforcement agencies be more effective in pinpointing and addressing community issues and concerns, particularly violent crimes.

"It is a force multiplier, is what it is," Randall said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia, Pensacola Real Time Crime Center modernizes police work