At their next meeting on Wednesday, September 7, the Tallahassee City Commission will consider funding of the Capital Region Real Time Crime Center (the Center).
The Center will be funded through an equal and shared allocation of costs by the funding entities. The City’s share of joint operating expenses is estimated to be $108,569 for FY23 with up to $26,000 in annual recurring costs over the next four years.
The Real Time Crime Center
The Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) recently partnered with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) and the Florida State University Police Department (FSU-PD) to create the Center.
The mission of the Center is to enhance communication, intelligence sharing, and coordination among state, county, and city law enforcement agencies within Leon County.
The Center will be equipped with advanced video analytics systems and robust intelligence solutions to improve how local law enforcement serves the Tallahassee community. The Center will have access to more than 1,000 cameras throughout the county and city limits and will employ GIS mapping and a global positioning system (GPS) to help set up officer perimeters when a suspect is fleeing.
The Center will have a Command Dashboard that can aggregate data feeds from multiple sources, including public safety camera systems (PSCS), automated license plate readers (APLRs), automatic vehicle location (AVL) systems, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems, law enforcement records management systems (RMS), as well as open-source data.
Material from these systems serves as sources of evidence when investigating and prosecuting crimes.
Real-Time Dissemination of Information
The agenda item provides an example of how the real-time dissemination of information can be used by law enforcement.
Scenario Example 1 of Applicability
Officers are dispatched to a shooting that occurred on ABC Street where there is one public safety camera system (PSCS) within .25 miles of the location of the shooting. Right away, CR-RTCC analysts review the call notes from the CAD and see that a silver sedan was seen by witnesses speeding from the scene. Analysts reviewing the PSCS observe a silver ford taurus with a Seminole sticker in the rear window driving in the immediate area prior to the shooting incident. Analysts check the automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) and determine that a silver taurus with a Seminole sticker in the rear window was captured on an ALPR approximately 2 miles away and 10 minutes after the shooting. The information about the sticker is relayed to officers on scene. Upon questioning, two witnesses recall seeing a large sticker on the rear windshield. Analysts provide tag information of the possible suspect/witness vehicle to the officers. The vehicle is seen by officers in another district when a traffic violation is observed, and a traffic stop is attempted. The driver flees from the officers and ultimately is found crashed several blocks away with spent shell casings inside. CR-RTCC analysts, using an automatic vehicle locator and global positioning system, set up a perimeter for the responding officers. After K-9 tracking, a suspect is located.
In this scenario, investigative information was obtained, and public safety was enhanced due to the knowledge that the vehicle may have been involved.
Currently, without the real-time support of the CR-RTCC, initial review of call notes from the CAD and an ALPR requires more processing time from detectives. By leveraging CR-RTCC, TPD will be able to identify and accelerate the apprehension of suspects. The Center’s trained law enforcement analysts will also be able to identify crime patterns in real time.
City Commission Action
The agenda item notes that the Center is near completion and will be ready for occupancy by the end of September 2022.
To finalize the interagency agreement, City staff is seeking authorization for the City Manager, or designee, to execute a Memorandum of Agreement on behalf of the City of Tallahassee with the Florida State University Board of Trustees and the Leon County Government for the establishment and funding of the Center.
City to Consider Funding for Real Time Crime Center added by Staff on
View all posts by Staff →
What ever happened to road crews for picking up trash for bad deeds.
Benjamin, sound point about big gov intrusion & 4th Amendment
Well said Benjamin.
You know, I’m all for adding deputies to the sheriff’s department and improving training; this could be horribly misused. With our city commission being as corrupt as it already is, giving the “1984 equipment” is going to erode trust even further.
Counter measures for the excessive use of these surveillance devices (e.g. the “Stingray”) need to go mainstream and force law enforcement to abide by the 4th Amendment.
Agree, great idea and use of taxpayer money. I hope it works out and helps with our crime problem.
I wonder if anyone from the city had the foresight to check with any other communities who may have implemented a similar program. How did that work out for them? Did they find they had to change something that wasn’t quite working as planned? How did they correct that? What did they use as measurement to determine if the program was yielding the expected results? And on and on with maybe another 100 important items to ask about.
I seriously doubt that this is an original, totally new concept that was created in little sleepy Tallahassee by our current city administration and so-called leaders. I don’t believe that collectively that group is capable of an original idea that has merit and actually results in improvements.
All that aside, no matter who’s idea it was, it’s a great concept and I wish them success.
Enough, “your comment is pending review”. I stopped listening to your radio show, now I’m done reading your online articles. A.M.F.
Is this a signal the City and Leon County are getting tough on crime? Not a chance. Don’t worry gansta’s….you will still get your second, third, forth chance, free legal representation, get out of jail free cards and credit for time served. And the civil citation program will let you run wild until age 18. Our local officials would never, never, never get tough on crime.
I like the concept, but the numbers just don’t add up.
FY23 cost is $108,569. That’s one LEO and some pocket change. The recurring costs are less than $26,000/year, significantly less than an FTE.
Someone needs to go back and investigate the real commitment and cost. Maybe some of that $108k would be better spent figuring out exactly what this will cost.
@ Edward good summary I agree the Real Time Crime Center seems to be an excellant idea.
A few likely fatal problems I can see with it are:
1. Our lead City Commission wokesters, the J’s, Jeremy and Jack will identify the R.T.C.C. as raciest because it will always and forever be catching 85% minorities and people of color. No matter that is who commit 85% of the crime. It’s Jim Crow raciest and that is all we should need to know to oppose it.
2. The remainder of our City Commissioners will not see a clear path for local “usual suspects” (if thats what we still call them) to benifit. Example – how will Sean Pittman fit in to the project? Can we appoint another “usual suspect” to oversee the operation at a $100.000.+ salary? Will we be building an expensive building we can contract for political contributions to one of Dozier’s firms?
3. This project looks like “funding” the police and our wokesters along with the rest of the City Commission are not sure how they should feel and vote as to “funding” the police.
4. There is nothing even remotly related to how the proposed project will benifit the LGBTQ+ and the promotion of more abortions. Not to mention BLM (is BLM even still a “thing”?)
5. Something like this makes too much sense. It is what Counties ran by smelly Walmart shopping, MAGA loving, Janurary 6 red hat wearing, Desantis and Trump voters would support.
Here’s hope our esteemed City Commissioners can find a way to address their concerns and give this proposal a fair shot when they meet to consider the funding.
These are just some of the things we must take into consideration when living in a woke progressive ran little island of blue like the Leon/Tallahassee area!
Other than that the project seems to be a well thought out and excellant idea!!!!!
This looks like a good expenditure of our tax dollars to help fight the increasing crime rate here in Tallahassee. It may also help overcome some level of the “snitches get stitches” mentality. I’d like to know a little more about the “automatic vehicle locator” mentioned in the last sentence of the Scenario Example 1 of Applicability.