THE CHALLENGE
FURTHER STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY TRUST TO AID CRIME PREVENTION The City of Glendale and its police force are proud of their strong community relationship and Glendale leaders saw an opportunity to use those ties to fight crime more effectively. The GPD often reached out to local businesses when seeking video footage to aid criminal investigations, a process that could be time intensive, but was highly collaborative. A more programmatic approach to partnering with private businesses would strengthen their efforts while continuing to build on strong community trust. “We’ve always had a very strong relationship with our business community,” said Assistant Chief of Police Colby Brandt, who oversees investigative and administrative services for the GPD. “We knew we could do more; we wanted to provide an extra layer of protection for the business community, which in turn we knew would provide greater safety for our officers in the field.” Assistant Chief Brandt led an exploration of the innovative solutions other police departments were implementing to fight crime. “We started by visiting Albuquerque, Springfield and Detroit; it was in Detroit that I really started to see what we could do,” he recalled. “We were inspired by how the Detroit PD was partnering with local businesses on Project Greenlight and we thought we could build on that idea in Glendale.” FASTER RESPONSE AND INCREASED SAFETY FOR FIRST RESPONDERS REQUIRES REAL-TIME INTELLIGENCE Without a system that incorporated video and other real-time inputs such as radio data, GPS, and incident information, dispatch operators and analysts could not provide responding officers with a complete view of unfolding crimes. While dispatch could direct officers to where a crime had first occurred, they were challenged once the suspect fled the scene. “There were cases where we literally arrived 13 seconds after the suspect left,” recalls Officer Jonathan Clubb, who manages the technology operations of Glendale’s RTCC.
Without the ability to visualize a crime in process, resource intensive measures were often required when a suspect fled the scene. “Previously we might go to the scene and get information from the victim to find out that the suspect left in a westerly direction; then we’d set up a perimeter or a search,” said Chief Briggs. The gap in technology also meant operators could not fully equip officers with real-time intelligence that could increase their safety in the field. “We so often send our police officers into an area where they have to make decisions and they’re by themselves,” said Ser geant Soto. “We need to be able to talk to them and let them know we have eyes on what’s going on around them.” The deployment of an RTCC would pull real-time information from multiple sources, including video, and integrate it with CAD. Using that intelligence, operators could better prepare officers for whatever they might encounter when they arrived at a crime scene.
CASE STUDY | GLENDALE POLICE DEPARTMENT
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