Pueblo law enforcement wants to open a real-time crime center. Here's what that means

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Lori Pintz is the director of information technology for the city of Pueblo, not the Pueblo Police Department.

Rising crime in Pueblo is one of the top issues facing the city ahead of the upcoming municipal election.

But city leaders have been planning for a “real-time crime center” in Pueblo for the past few years.

Advocates say that deploying additional surveillance and hiring additional staff to keep tabs on the technology will help deter crime, while opponents raise concerns about privacy and over-policing in vulnerable neighborhoods.

Here’s why city leaders are planning to open a real-time crime center and what that could look like in Pueblo.

What are real-time crime centers?

New York City opened a real-time crime center in 2005. Over the past two decades, other cities have built out similar hubs where data and surveillance are synthesized to increase police response times and accuracy.

That can include technology such as gunshot monitoring systems, city-operated surveillance systems and license plate monitors.

The availability of federal COVID-19 grants has contributed to a boom in building new centers, now in smaller cities around the country, NPR reported last month.

There isn’t a lot of large-scale data about the efficacy of these centers besides anecdotal examples, according to Wired.

Pueblo Police Chief Chris Noeller told city council at a work session Monday evening that several cities have reported decreases in gunfire after starting a real-time crime center and relayed a story about how a gunshot monitoring system saved the life of a man in Albuquerque.

“A person had been shot, nobody in the area called the police regarding the shooting,” Noeller said. “Because of the ShotSpotter technology, they were able to respond, luckily find this individual and deliver him aid in time to save his life and get him to the hospital before he passed away.”

While law enforcement officials say the centers can help departments more effectively address crime, some privacy advocates object to increasing surveillance and the vulnerability of sensitive data.

Why officials want a center in Pueblo

Noeller told the Chieftain after the presentation that he’s been in discussions about starting up a real-time crime center with Mayor Nick Gradisar for approximately two years.

Gradisar and other officials with the city and the police department have traveled to similar centers in recent months, such as in Pueblo’s sister city of Chihuahua, Mexico as well as Albuquerque.

Noeller told city council that the center could help the Pueblo Police Department respond more accurately and swiftly to gunshot incidents amid staffing difficulties.

Pueblo PD will work to engage the community to inform them about these centers, Noeller told the Chieftain, such as through neighborhood watch meetings.

How Pueblo’s center would be set up

Initial plans for this new center in Pueblo involve deploying technology from a company called SoundThinking, formerly known as ShotSpotter. Monitoring equipment picks up the sound, which is analyzed by artificial intelligence and confirmed by SoundThinking staff within 60 seconds, Noeller said.

Pueblo PD has identified two neighborhoods where this would be initially deployed: in Bessemer and the East Side. That's where data show are the hotspots for homicides, drive-by shootings and calls about shots fired.

After the human confirmation, analysts in Pueblo’s crime center would distribute information about the reported gunshot to police officers.

The center would also include a license plate monitoring system that takes high-quality images of plates in key areas.

While city-run surveillance cameras are not part of the initial budget for the center, business owners could opt-in to include their surveillance systems in the center’s surveillance network. Residents with some internet connected cameras, such as Ring doorbells, could also opt-in to sharing footage with Pueblo PD.

If city council approves funding, the center could be operational by next March, said Lori Pinz, the director of information technology for the city of Pueblo.

How much Pueblo’s real time crime center would cost

The initial cost of putting together this center is estimated to be $2.2 million, according to Noeller’s presentation.

That includes $1.5 million in upfront software and hardware costs to set up the center, such as computers and 22 license plate readers with a one-year subscription to the software. Adding 22 surveillance cameras is estimated to cost an additional $100,000, but that’s not included in the initial plans for setting up the center.

Pueblo PD would also need to pay $259,000 for the first year of the gunshot detecting system, which includes a 3-mile area coverage.

There would be five people working at the center in the initial rollout. That includes one sergeant, already on staff, as well as four new civilian analysts to operate the center.

Noeller clarified after the presentation that the center would not be operational 24/7, but would likely be online for 16-18 hours per day.

Without any expansion, the center would cost approximately $745,000 annually to keep operational. Nearly half of the recurring costs are to pay the salary and benefits of the four analysts, while software licensing upkeep for the gunshot monitoring system and the license plate cameras would be $410,000.

How some city councilors reacted

Councilor Larry Atencio, who spoke about similar ideas when announcing his campaign for mayor in July, voiced his strong support for the idea.

Atencio’s district includes Belmont and the East Side, one of two neighborhoods that Pueblo PD identified as a hub for reported gunshots.

Atencio said that his constituents “want police activity and they want crime to go down — this is one way to do it.”

“I think you will deter lot of the crime because if people know they're being watched, they're going to change their behavior,” Atencio said.

Vicente Martinez Ortega’s council district includes Bessemer, the other neighborhood where the technology would first be deployed. Martinez Ortega, who is seeking re-election for his council seat, said he plans to oppose this idea.

“I don't think I'll be supporting this as it will put my district under a microscope. And as we know, if you put something under a microscope, you're gonna find something,” Martinez Ortega said.

Councilor Regina Maestri, another candidate for mayor, was skeptical about how the center could be successful in Pueblo. She said that she looked into the data of other real-time crime centers deployed in other cities and “they’re still having high rates of crime, that doesn’t seem like a solution.”

“How do we sell this to the constituency that we're going to make this investment?” Maestri asked Noeller, adding that people really want to see convictions.

“It's not a crime prevention system. But what it is, is a tool that allows us to do our job more effectively, to do it safer, and to collect evidence that we can use at trial against the offender, hopefully resulting in the very conviction that you're asking about,” Noeller said in response to Maestri. He also said he can only control the portion of the criminal justice system that he’s responsible for.

What’s next?

City council is expected to vote on a resolution to divert $1.5 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding to the center at council's Sept. 25 meeting.

Since the funding is being allotted to another department within the city, council can pass this funding with a resolution instead of an ordinance.

There’s approximately $5 million left of American Rescue Plan Act cash for city council to approve from the total balance of over $37 million. Accounting for pending projects, including this real-time crime center, there’s approximately $770,000 remaining, according to the city’s latest report from early August.

The city and the police department are also waiting to hear back about two grants to offset costs. Chief of Staff Laura Solano said at the work session that the city has applied for a grant to cover staffing costs for the four new hires at the center for the first two years of operation and Noeller said that Pueblo PD applied for a grant to help pay for the gunshot monitoring system.

Robinson said that the city is likely to hear back about the status of the staffing grant before the end of the year. A spokesperson with Pueblo PD did not respond to a request for details about the department’s grant application prior to the Chieftain’s deadline Wednesday.

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Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey. Please support local news at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Could a real-time crime center help Pueblo law enforcement?