Real Time Crime Center – Memphis Flyer

Saturday night, five police officers stood on a platform overlooking hip-hop group Arrested Development’s performance at the Beale Street Music Festival. But that didn’t stop a group of fans near the stage from lighting up a joint during the band’s cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.”

Fortunately for the fans, the marijuana smoke must not have drifted to the police perch, because the joint went around uninterrupted. However, if they had known about the Memphis Police Department (MPD) test of the new $3.5 million Real Time Crime Center this weekend, the fans might have thought twice before toking.

As part of the test, hidden and unconcealed cameras were posted throughout Tom Lee Park and around the Beale Street area over the weekend. Those cameras fed into the new state-of-the-art crime center, housed in a secret location, where 10 officers watched video feed on 42 different display screens.

“If [crime center officers] see a crime occur, they’re able to get that information to officers out in the field within minutes through their PDAs,” said Monique Martin, public affairs officer for the MPD. “It helps us catch suspects and stay on top of any crime patterns that may be occurring in the area.”

Inside the center, staffers track crime patterns using the MPD Blue Crush technology, which displays the most recent crime locations on a computer-generated map. This can help officers track a suspect committing multiple crimes in an area.

Though the MPD has been testing elements of the center for several weeks, the Beale Street Music Festival marks the first time all the center’s components were utilized at the same time.

Last year’s event netted 78 total arrests. This year, there were only 42 misdemeanor arrests and six felony arrests in the Beale Street area. Charges ranged from public intoxication and disorderly conduct to drug possession and DUI.

Martin said the crime center also will play an important role in tracking crime during the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest later this month. As with the Beale Street Music Fest, the barbecue event will be heavily patrolled.

“A citizen is not going to be able to turn any corner downtown without seeing an officer in a patrol car, on a bicycle, on a scooter, or on foot,” Martin said. “And we’ll have some officers working out there in plain clothes.”

Earlier this month, while walking to her car, a University of Memphis graduate student was stabbed in the thigh and robbed. Campus security cameras caught the attack on tape, and a few days later, Zachariah Judge and his girlfriend/accomplice Valerie Jones were arrested.

Though the camera was installed by the U of M, that crime-fighting tactic may soon spread across the city. Last week, Memphis mayor Willie Herenton requested the City Council earmark $700,000 in next year’s budget for a Memphis Police Department (MPD) Real Time Crime Center. The center would combine video surveillance with sophisticated data systems and software.

“We’ll have Sky Cop cameras, which have the capability of triangulating gunshots,” says MPD spokesperson Vince Higgins. “Say there’s a camera posted on Tennessee Street and a shooting occurs within a block of the Flyer office. A Sky Cop camera would sense where that shot came from. It would then turn to that area and that video would feed into the Real Time Crime Center.”

Officers stationed in the crime center headquarters, to be located at the Urban Child Institute at 600 Jefferson, will be able to watch the footage on a large video wall. Officers could even be dispatched to the location before anyone calls to report the shooting.

“The cameras are totally mobile. They’ll be posted throughout the city where the need is greatest,” says Higgins. “That will be determined at our weekly Blue Crush meetings when we’re pinning down crime hotspots.”

Other cameras designed to spot stolen car tags will be placed on patrol cars.

“The camera will read tags as it passes cars, so even if the officer is preoccupied, the cameras will notify the officer that the car or tag is stolen,” says Higgins.

But the Real Time Crime Center encompasses more than video surveillance. Using special software, police will receive instant information on recent criminal activity in a radius around a crime, existing crime patterns in the neighborhood, and a history of people with arrest records who may frequent the area.

“Investigators headed to the scene will have the ability to take that real-time information gathered from all those sources,” says Higgins.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has been operating its $11 million Real Time Crime Center since 2005. The center draws information from New York state criminal records, parole and probation files, as well as city criminal complaints, arrest records, and 911 calls. MPD director Larry Godwin toured the NYPD facility last December.

With Blue Crush databases already in place, Higgins says much of the work for the local Real Time Crime Center is complete.

“Instead of buying someone’s software to get this started, we have people on our staff who are able to write the software specific to Memphis,” says Higgins. “We’re not buying a system that was used in New York and then trying to make it work in Memphis.”

Though Herenton requested $700,000 from the city, additional funding for the center is expected to come from grants.