Boston police unveil new ‘Real Time’ tech center
BostonHerald.com
By Laura Crimaldi
March 2, 2010
Boston police today unveiled a new fusion center aimed at providing officers with crucial data from surveillance videos, gunshot detection technology and other sources in real time as they rush to crime scenes.
The Real Time Crime Center is staffed by detectives and five civilian analysts, who monitor radio communications, video from the city surveillance cameras, alerts from the gunshot detection system ShotSpotter, mapping technology and other databases. The civilian analysts were hired with federal stimulus funds, officials said.
“It’s a place where we pooled all the technology available to us,” said Police Commissioner Ed Davis. “We’re actually pooling the information better, collecting it better and getting it off to the officers in the street.”
Police said the new unit monitors video surveillance from 84 cameras located along city evacuation routes and can also access images from Transportation Department cameras. Those surveillance feeds were previously located in the department’s operations division, where police said the video was not monitored in real time.
“This program here continues to do the work that we need,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “They continue to give the men and women on the streets of our city the tools they need to continue the reduction of crime in the city of Boston.”
The new unit has already helped police in the field. Officer Matthew Hogart described a Feb. 11 incident in Mattapan, where ShotSpotter and surveillance video captured a gunfight between two feuding gang associates on Blue Hill Avenue.
In that gun battle, surveillance video captured one suspect crossing the street to retrieve something after the shooting. Hogart said crime center staff notified officers at the scene about the man’s movements. Police recovered a cell phone and GPS unit and stopped the man, who turned out to be the shooter’s brother. Three people were arrested.
The New York City Police Department was the first to launch such a unit. Boston officials said the city’s fiber networks have the capacity to take on feeds from additional surveillance video systems and other sources.
Davis said the city is talking to the MBTA about integrating its surveillance system with cameras in place on the T and is examining license plate reader technology. Chief Information Officer Bill Oates said the city is also talking with the Boston Housing Authority about accessing their camera systems.
The unit is located in the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, which serves the city and eight surrounding communities. Oates said the city is also in the procurement process for a new communication system to give fire and Emergency Medical Services dispatchers access to mapping technology and other data now being pumped into the new police crime center.
Also today, Boston police unveiled its newly designed BPDNews.com site. The Web site provides access to police forms that were once only available at headquarters, features blogs from all the police districts and includes the department’s first Facebook page.
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ShotSpotter contact |
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Erin Lopez |
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