Austin police will soon be able to solve crime as it happens.
An empty room on the fourth floor of the Austin Police Department headquarters will soon be the center of how officers respond to crime. It will be called the Real Time Crime Center.
"The only thing we have today in our arsenal is -- we get a call, and we respond directly to the incident to gather additional information, and then we put that out to say be on the lookout,” APD Commander Troy Gay said.
Beginning this summer, six officers will monitor police radio traffic live 24 hours a day, seven days a week and advise the responding officers before they get to the scene.
“They can actually real time dive into the crime that is taking place to figure out any additional information they can provide patrol, the investigative unit that's responding, so we can increase our chance of apprehension and quicker apprehension,” Gay said.
The key to this operation will be surveillance cameras.
APD will install four in the crime-ridden Rundberg Lane/IH-35 area in the next 30 to 45 days. The cameras will keep watch above the ground on traffic lights and telephone poles.
One camera will be located next to the Budget Lodge. Another is planned for Middle Fiskville Road, where a woman was raped in an apartment parking lot on Sunday. The knife-wielding attacker got away.
Had a camera been present, officers would have been able to review the video and maybe cracked the case.
Each one will be well marked and numbered. So, if a person calls 911 to report a crime in progress, they can say "It's near camera #105." The watch commander can bring it up and monitor the footage.
In a test phase officers mounted a camera on top of the municipal court building on 7th Street downtown. They were able to see people on Attayac Street, a half-mile away.
According to the manufacturer's website, some of their cameras have the capability to show facial features miles away.
The Real Time Crime Center will be fully functional in 60 to 75 days.
The center is not costing the department anything extra. The equipment was paid for with grant money. The officers staffing the operation will be those on light duty or long term injury.
