Amarillo police chief lauds impact of new technology to fight crime
With the recent reported drop in crime in Amarillo, improved technology has been a great factor in this reduction for the police department and citizens. Amarillo Police Chief Martin Birkenfeld spoke about the impact of technology and its reduction of opportunities to be a victim of crime.
Citizen technology, just as doorbell and property cameras, has resulted in a substantial drop in crime and the ability of the department to catch criminals. Camera technology that reads license plates and drone technology has expanded the police department's ability to react faster in real-time and to be able to track suspects and crimes.
“We have been testing license readers and other technology for about two years, and we have seen dramatic results,” Birkenfeld said. “In particular, on stolen cars, it's likely a significant factor in our reduction because some of our repeat offenders have gotten caught through license plate readers. We are able to, once a car gets stolen, that plate number goes through the system, and we have got over 40 cameras around town at various intersections that are just reading license plates for stolen vehicles."
With this system, a message is immediately sent out to officers that goes out within seconds of the location the car was identified at with a picture of the car including the plate number.
According to Birkenfeld, innovative technology such as drones has exceeded his expectations in terms of the value it provides the department. He says that it is crucial to provide safety overwatch over officers during critical incident situations to give real-time evaluation. It is also valuable in searching for people if there is a missing child.
“I really underestimated how much we would be able to use them; right now, we have three (drones) assigned to patrol so that those officers can just deploy them if an incident happens," he said. “When we had the incident near Fleetwood Park, we were able to deploy a drone that spotted the suspect going into a basement, and it saved our officers from searching house to house. We were able to set up a perimeter and maintain surveillance on the suspect.”
About a dozen officers are licensed for drone usage, which will be used with the new crime center to observe video. Birkenfeld said that there is a long-term plan for body cams and other cameras at parks that will be observed by the crime center to distribute information.
Crime analysists are also being employed to observe crime data to provide crime bulletins and reports and give in-depth analysis of crime spots where a substantial amount of crime is being committed.
Asked if there were any concerns about technology invading citizens' rightful privacy, Birkenfeld emphasized that the department's mission is to use this technology in specific situations.
“We are very sensitive to the concerns that our community could have of the misuse of technology, so we are going to make sure that we are very judicious in how we use that,” he said. “For example, data from license plate readers gets purged after 30 days. We are not tracking anybody unless they are committing a crime. If we have reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe that someone has committed a crime, we may enter that into the system and track that person. The average person who drives past these license readers will never know the difference."
Birkenfeld said drone technology is much more cost-effective and efficient than a helicopter.
“We can put up over a dozen drones for less than half the price of putting our helicopter in the air," he said. “The ability to overwatch, survey and take pictures is of the same value at less cost and with less risk to officers."
According to Birkenfeld, drones are not used for random patrols and are used exclusively for crimes in progress or investigational reasons. He said drones are often deployed during protests to keep everyone involved safe. This is not to record protests to prosecute, but rather to have an overwatch on the situation to keep the public safe.
“We do not want people to think we are randomly looking in backyards or places that we shouldn't be,” he said. “We have to respect the constitutional boundaries, and we want people to trust us to do the right things to protect them.”
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo police chief lauds impact of new technology to fight crime
