By Michael Hill
Correspondent
It’s the public’s first look at the Real Time Crime Center in Newark, up and running to work out the kinks since mid October but already producing results.
“We’re getting a lot of information that we normally wouldn’t have had prior to this so we’ve been able to solve a couple of cases in terms of guns being recovered and identifying some of our most notorious people. So, it’s working very well,” said Newark Police Department Director Eugene Venable.
Law enforcers say the real value of this Real Time Crime Center in Newark is that so many departments are gathering and sharing information and intelligence in unprecedented ways to fight crime.
Here’s one way the 24-hour, multiple-department crime center works. Say officers respond to a shooting. They learn the victim’s name on the scene. They give the name to the crime center.
“We, in turn, analyze that data and do a full work up on the shooting victim, ascertain whether they’re involved in criminal activity or is a total innocent bystander. By the time they’re done within a two-hour period of us getting information, we push ’em out a full-blown profile of the person that was shot with links referencing officer safety, because some of these guys have issues with guns and narcotics arrests. Even if they’re injured that detective may be going out to interview somebody else that’s potentially dangerous, in a sense. So, it covers both ends,” said Lt. Fritz Frage.
“This is the future of law enforcement. We may be leading here in Newark. You’re actually witnessing history. This is the first time in the state this has been done. But this is actually setting a priority that the entire future of policing, any where in this nation of ours this is where it’s going to go. Because the bad guys they’re not hindered by jurisdictional lines, by boundaries and so now neither are we,” said Newark Police Chief Anthony Campos.
“It’s a very, very powerful tool,” said Acting New Jersey Attorney General John Hoffman.
Hoffman says the crime center speeds up crime fighting and solving.
“A lot of times they’d have to wait to come back to headquarters and see people that they know and talk about, ‘Hey! Did you ever see anything like this, ever know anyone like that, ever see a car like that?’ None of that happens any more. Now, it’s almost as if the next morning’s briefing room is right in their car, right at the very moment they’re out at the scene,” Hoffman said.
“I think we’re really closing the gap from the time a crime is committed to person apprehended and that’s good because going to prevent that person from committing another crime,” said Newark Police Department Lt. William Brady.
Right now, as a result of the intelligence sharing two counties have their eye on a vehicle involved in two separate shootings. But officials decline to say more than that.
What they do say is that even if cash-strapped police departments along the highway 21 corridor put 500 more police officers on the streets, they would still need the key to solving and preventing crime: intelligence.