Contributed by Tom Joyce, VP of Business Development at Vigilant Solutions and Retried NYPD.
The more things change the more they stay the same. I spent 21 years at the NYPD—first patrolling the streets and subways of New York City and later as Lieutenant/Commander of the NYPD Cold Case Squad. And now in my work with Vigilant Solutions, I serve those who serve. Yet, the story is the still same—law enforcement is asked to do more with less, to be prepared, and to readily produce investigative leads. Yet, the threats continue to mount from lone wolf shooters to crime pouring in from neighboring cities, agencies are charged with protecting their areas of geographic responsibility including communities, cities, neighborhoods, businesses, airports and campuses.
Outside-In Crime
Back when I was with the NYPD we had a saying “Manhattan makes it and Brooklyn takes it,’ referring to criminal elements coming into Manhattan from Brooklyn to steal or commit other crimes. And now, we are seeing this pattern amplified across the country. It’s not just a Manhattan and Brooklyn thing, it’s a Hammond and Chicago, or a La Verne and Los Angeles thing. More and more, law enforcement officials tell us that they don’t have homegrown crime—it’s outside-in crime.
Vulnerable Targets
And what about areas that have become common targets for lone wolf shooters, theft, assault, rape or even terrorists? Areas like universities, schools, business campuses, airports or arenas, to name a few, are self-contained communities that are increasingly targeted. We get calls every day asking for help tracking down leads in crimes committed in these areas.
How do you protect these areas of responsibility? The law enforcement agencies that win this battle will know when a wanted vehicle enters the community—a vehicle that may be carrying a person considered dangerous. These agencies will expand their reach and fight crime without stretching their workforce. They will have the tools at hand to develop investigative leads and close cases faster.
Virtual Fence Protects La Verne, California
One city that is getting it right is La Verne, California. La Verne is a small community within Los Angeles County covering just over 8 square miles with a population of just over 30,000. The La Verne Police Department worked with Vigilant Solutions to install a network of 21 fixed cameras and the cameras are having a noticeable impact in the department’s ability to protect neighborhoods from known vehicles of interest and investigate and close cases more rapidly.
Lieutenant Chris Fenner of the La Verne Police Department explained, “La Verne is not a big city by any stretch of the imagination, but because we are in LA County we see our fair share of criminals either passing through our community, or specifically coming into our community to perpetrate crimes. We’ve seen otherwise peaceful communities turned upside down by crime; when that happens, it impacts everything—property values, quality of life, business and much more. We wanted to take a very proactive measure to reduce the crime that is taking place and prevent future crimes from ever occurring. We saw other neighboring communities create a ‘virtual fence’ using license plate reader cameras and heard about the results they were generating.”
Lt. Fenner tells us that after only eight months in operation, the virtual fence in La Verne has had a significant impact. They have identified and stopped 28 occupied stolen vehicles entering La Verne, compared to one-to-two stolen recoveries annually prior to having the fixed cameras.
He went on to say, “Stolen vehicles are often used to perpetrate other crimes, and I can say without a doubt that we prevented crimes from taking place by stopping these vehicles. Some of these vehicles were entering residential areas at 1 or 2 in the morning with loaded firearms and burglary tools. As a result of these stops, we have also apprehended individuals wanted for more serious crimes such as kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon.”
And La Verne is finding that the fixed camera solution is also aiding investigations. Lt. Fenner notes, “In addition to helping us identify these threats entering our community, the data collected by the cameras also helps us investigate cases. We have solved numerous residential and commercial burglary cases using vehicle descriptions such as year, make and model, or a partial plate, coupled with the location. We have located at least three domestic violence suspects using historical data to understand where the suspects’ vehicles have previously been seen.”
He concludes, “The system has been a tremendous force multiplier for our department, and is helping us not only reduce, but prevent crime.”
La Verne shows how a fixed cameras solution effectively wraps a virtual fence around a geographic area of responsibility. No extra staffing or hours required, plus the system provides investigative capabilities that help to develop leads and solve cases. Our goal was to make it easy for agencies of all sizes to reap the benefits of a fixed camera solution. Fixed license plate recognition cameras are installed at every entry and exit, or every choke-point. These cameras detect all vehicles entering and exiting through the choke points, capturing the plate number and image, as well as the time, date and location of every detection. Agencies also get a robust back-end that allows for investigative analytics and real-time alerting—no IT integration required.
Vigilant’s fixed camera solution includes all hardware (cameras, communication boxes, brackets and cabling), services (site survey, commissioning, and training), and storage of all plate detections and analytics for investigative use.
Forward thinking law enforcement agencies see the virtual fence solution and advanced data analysis as proactive steps toward safety and crime prevention, a force multiplier, a way to do more with less. And isn’t that what agencies are called to do every day?
