RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The Richmond Police Department is continuing to work on the opening of a new high-tech facility that supporters claim will make cracking down on crime easier.
At a Public Safety Standing Committee Meeting on Monday night, city leaders received an update on the “Real-Time Crime Center.” Chief of Police Rick Edwards shared some new updates on the center’s completion progress.
The Richmond City Council approved a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice for the Real-Time Crime Center back in January.
During the presentation, Chief Edwards said the center’s purpose is to maximize policing efforts and be more effective with the resources currently available to his officers.
According to Edwards, the new center will use a broad range of technology, including technologies like surveillance and security cameras, license plate reader cameras and shot detection that will help law enforcement agencies to solve crimes faster.
The center has been proven as a best practice across the country with other police forces already using them, Edwards said.
“The goal of this effort — is to provide that support from a centralized location where there’s already computer access to existing cameras,” Edwards said. “There’s database analysis so that the detectives in the field can simply do detective work.”
The department currently has 598 sworn officers but Edwards said they are still looking for an RTCC supervisor to spearhead and operate the center.
It remains unclear when the Real-Time Crime Center will be complete.
