SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — Technology plays a big role in how many metro Atlanta police departments solve crimes and keep the community safe and in the City of South Fulton, their new "Real Time Crime Center" has already helped solve 30 crimes, including two homicides.
The future of policing and technology is exciting for the City of South Fulton Police L. Patrick Triplett, who oversees the intelligence center.
“This is a map of our footprint for the City of South Fulton," Triplett said during a tour.
The real-time interactive map includes GDOT, business and some residential cameras, license plate readers, 911 call information, where officers are located, and remote drone footage.
“It will keep the public safe because we will be able to get ascertain information in a real-time setting," Triplett said. "We also have an analyst that sits in this same division with us that can take that information or turn it around and get it back out to the officers that are out on the street.”
Officers will have the technology in their vehicles and cell phones, allowing supervisors to see a situation as it develops.
“As you can see, it records details of the scene and communicates with officers," Triplett said.
The system can track different kinds of crime or public safety situations. For example, the program looks for vehicles with possible missing children and Alzheimer's patients, as well as homicide suspects or suspected terrorists.
The department got alerts for five stolen license plates or vehicles, while 11Alive News got a tour.
“It will actually put that car on the map and show me where it is," Triplett said.
The department will have monitors installed on the wall in the future.
City of South Fulton Police Chief Keith Meadows visited Tel Aviv this year to learn more about the developing technology.
“Mostly what we want to do is to try to create a 360-degree search of all of our intelligence within the city," Meadows said.
The search will include a data warehouse of information and artificial intelligence.
“We're looking for our police officers to be able to engage in a predictive analytics platform, and so we want to make sure that we're just providing those tools to them so that they could be more successful," Meadows said.
11Alive asked Chief Meadows about some residents' concerns about privacy.
"It's important for us to make sure that we have the right policy behind these assets so that our citizens will have a sense of relief as it relates to their privacy," Meadows said. "We want to make sure that we're developing thoughtful policy, and we can't do that in a vacuum. We have to make sure that we're looking at our residents and having these types of conversations with them so that as we begin to develop that policy, we've developed something that everybody in the community is comfortable with."
East Point Police are also working on opening its own "Real Time Crime Center. Cobb County Police Department's Real Time Crime Center played a crucial role in finding the Midtown Atlanta shooting suspect earlier this year.