Baldwin County could soon see a significant boost in its crime-fighting capabilities if the Board of Commissioners approves a system introduced at a work session this past Tuesday.
Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department intelligence analyst Evelyn Johnson used a slide presentation to introduce county commissioners to the concept of a Real Time Crime Center (RTCC).
She pointed out three foundations of an effective RTCC: improve officer and citizen safety; assist and improve realtime identification, location, and circumstances of criminal suspects; and provide effective, proactive, real-time crime reporting in the community.
“The national average for a dispatched call is 3 minutes, 38 seconds,” Johnson said. “That’s 3 minutes, 38 seconds that officer has to get to that scene. Our job as RTCC operators would be to give that officer as much information as possible before he or she is walking into a scenario.”
Johnson pointed out that agencies nationwide using RTCC have reported up to a 66% increase in apprehension rate. With an enhanced license plate reading system, there is an 87% chance of apprehension, she said.
“That’s absolutely incredible,” she said. “That’s a big number.”
Baldwin County currently has access to more than 12,000 cameras nationwide, with 91 in Baldwin alone. However, Johnson said a recent search done over a 12-hour period returned access to more than 43,000 camera views nationwide. She said this illustrated the advantages of the Flock camera operating system.
“This is the operating system that the RTCC will use to basically run our technologies, that will bring in and integrate everything we already use at the Sheriff’s Department, including the FLOCK cameras that will take the RTCC to the next level,” Johnson said. “It is browser-based, not only to use the license-platereader technology but live cameras as well. We’re able to track what our options are in (emergency response) vehicles, pull in footage from our drone cameras, our officers’ cameras, or community cameras.”
Johnson said the Flock operating system is capable of route prediction, too. “Flock allows us to set up alerts, and that alert system basically tells us when a vehicle with a matching license plate hits inside our county.” She added that once enough information is collected, the system can predict a route. “It is a real-time prediction tool, so we’re going to be able to better allocate our officers’ resources.”
Johnson also discussed Clearview AI, a facial recognition software system that uses opensource information (social media, open records, media, etc., not password protected) and is link-based to follow leads for identification purposes. She used herself as an example.
“As an intelligence analyst, I do not have any public pages or social media accounts. You will not be able to find me. But,” she added while showing several photos of herself taken from various sources. “What I cannot control is maybe what pictures the newspaper took of me, or maybe when I was growing up, what the local school system did.”
She talked about other program features, including Penlink (PLX), used for mobile digital analysis, live and historical data, social media, call data records, search warrant returns, financial data, mapping, and cross-case analysis, all featuring jury-ready products.
Johnson then went through the physical RTCC operations area, which she referred to as “the Bullpen,” housed in a 30 x 60-foot metal building adjacent to the Baldwin County Law Enforcement Center. The main area will be where operators will work, sitting in front of a video wall, with four consoles and four 55-inch screens.
“The RTCC is going to become the hub when something happens,” she explained. “We want this to be an accessible place where our command staff can come and watch and know exactly what’s going on, in real time, as well.”
The facility will also contain two offices to accommodate expanding intelligence gathering, and more forensic space to process evidence.
Johnson said projected costs of the new facility, including construction cost of $356,714 submitted by Dyer Construction Company of Milledgeville, will be $52,500 for the four consoles, and $75,000 to upgrade the grounding ring at the LEC to protect equipment from damage from lightning or similar disruptions.
Johnson also discussed staffing, pointing out a partnership with Georgia College & State University that initially will provide college interns during normal business hours.
“We’ve seen from Cobb County (the largest RTCC user in the country), and other RTCCs that you definitely have to walk before you can run. So, the center will operate on bankers’ hours at least the first year, utilizing those paid interns,” Johnson suggested.
“Eventually,” she continued, “I hope to see us move to a two-shift position, where we have coverage day and night, like we do with dispatch.”
District 4 County Commissioner Henry Craig was left impressed by the RTCC plan.
“We owe our citizens the best possible public safety we can,” Craig said. “This is an investment that will be very valuable to us. It is not only additional safety for our public safety officers, but additional safety for our community. In the big picture, if we earn the reputation as a community that does not tolerate crime, it will bring great benefits for us in years and years to come.”
Johnson said Wednesday morning she is hopeful the project can begin soon.
“We would like to start construction 60 days out of approval from the commissioners. We would love to see the building up in six months, but we are being hopefully realistic,” she said.