South Bend police unveil video surveillance control room for 'real time crime center'
SOUTH BEND — One city official has likened the control room of the South Bend Police Department's Real Time Crime Center to "the bat cave."
On Tuesday, Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski used another pop culture reference to describe the city's new hub of surveillance technology.
"Sometimes I walk in here and I feel like Captain Kirk on Star Trek," Ruszkowski said.
Situated in a room in the police department, the control room is a physical manifestation of the Real Time Crime Center with a large set of wall monitors able to view everything from an interactive map of the city showing on-duty officers and active incidents to social media feeds. Manning the displays is a team of three analysts, who each have work stations with three screens of their own.
Privacy concerns with Real Time Crime:South Bend police roll out 'Real Time Crime Center' technology. Some worry about privacy.
The goal, officials say, is for the analysts to monitor the numerous camera displays from around the city and assist police in the field as they respond to developing situations. Additionally, officers and analysts can look through archived footage to investigate offenses, where the hope is that the increased amount of video feeds leads to a higher clearance rate.
The unveiling of the control room marks the last piece of the meshwork of software upgrades and surveillance technology initiatives that collectively are referred to as the Real Time Crime Center. Over the past several months, police have integrated a number of existing cameras — traffic cameras and license plate readers as well as city-owned cameras in parks — with newly installed video surveillance devices into one software system.
All of those feeds are accessible by officers and analysts through Fusus app — which has an overlay that's also synched up to ShotSpotter technology, active dispatches and the GPS locations of on-duty officers — creating a real-time overview of policing activity in South Bend at any given moment.
The project will also see the introduction of facial recognition technology, leading to some community debate. Some have expressed concerns about the necessity of the increased surveillance, which officials dismiss with claims the new technology will reduce violent crime and help police solve cases more effectively.
"We know having more information, more intelligence going into dangerous situations will lead to better outcomes," South Bend Mayor James Mueller said.
The unveiling of the control room also comes as South Bend saw an increase in shooting victims in 2022 compared to 2021. Though the number of shootings decreased in 2022, officials say, the number of people shot rose from 121 to 124, with 25 homicides.
Control room online
Though South Bend police have been using the Fusus app and overlay since December, this month marks the full integration of the various pieces of technology into a central hub where analysts can monitor the various aspects of the software.
The overall concept of a "Real Time Crime Center" was first announced by Mueller last spring during his State of the City address. Since then, police and city officials have researched vendors to supply technology for the center, installed new cameras and worked out policies governing the center.
"It was an ambitious timeline," Mueller said. "There were a lot of pieces that had to come together and we thank our innovation and technology team, in addition to the police department team for getting this together."
In total, five analysts will work in the control center, two of whom are new hires. The city is set to pay Fusus about $125,000 per year to run the system.
During a press conference Tuesday, police department personnel demonstrated how they can pull up active calls that come through dispatch and get automatic notifications as to which cameras are in the area of the call.
During the demonstration, one portion of the large screen displayed Twitter readouts with searches for the words "gun" "kill" and "cops." Another portion showed the department's ShotSpotter Connect software, which directs officers to areas within their beats based on historic crime data.
The new technology will be extremely helpful, police say, in responding to active calls as analysts can watch live camera feeds of a situation unfolding and direct officers arriving where they need to go, what they need to look for and who potential suspects may be.
For instance, Ruszkowski said, if a gas station activates their burglary alarm, police personnel watching the crime center's camera feeds may be able to tell officers whether there's a person with a gun holding customers hostage or whether a shoplifter grabbed a bag of chips and ran out.
In addition to traffic cameras and cameras in parks, the city is undertaking a number of initiatives to increase the number of video feeds available to police, including:
Installing more city-owned cameras in public areas to record video, but not audio, footage
Launching a pilot program where businesses will install cameras at their stores and give police access to feeds
Setting up a website where homeowners can register doorbell cameras and share footage with police
Officials said Tuesday that businesses can begin purchasing and registering their security cameras with Fusus later this week. Mueller and Ruszkowski said upwards of 50 businesses have expressed interest in having their cameras integrated to the Real Time Crime system as part of the pilot program, which is modeled after Project Greenlight in Detroit.
Police believe the new technology will increase the number of cases where charges are filed, as well as officer safety. Ultimately, however, the success of the Real Time Crime Center will largely be determined by its ability to decrease violent crime and shootings.
"It's all about violent crime," Ruszkowski said.
Email Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend unveils 'real time crime center' surveillance control room
