STATESBORO, Ga. (WSAV) — Statesboro police are using technology to do something they call ‘precision policing’ -now it’s easier and quicker than ever before to find suspects and take them in.
They have solar-powered traffic cameras littered throughout town that take pictures of cars and their plates.
“Sometimes cases turn on something that simple,” said Statesboro police chief Mike Broadhead. “For us, that’s a piece of evidence that we could possibly use after a crime occurs in that general area,” said Broadhead.
Statesboro police have contracted with Flock Safety who own and maintain the cameras.
“We’re trying to use technology in a way to make ourselves more efficient and more effective without intruding on people’s civil liberties,” said Broadhead.
Before this technology, if they were looking for a stolen white sedan, they’d have to stop and check every white sedan they saw. Now, Broadhead says they can police with surgical precision.
“Sometimes from that eyewitness, you’re just looking for that clue, like just give us an idea of the description of the vehicle,” said Broadhead. “This is a step beyond that because this is not just a description of the vehicle. It’s the license plate and a photograph to make sure that that vehicle matches that plate.”
When a stolen plate zooms by, police are alerted. Broadhead says they’ve been able to recover seven stolen vehicles and get clues into a couple of homicide cases.
“Juries want to see video evidence of things and too the lack of people willing to be eyewitnesses this is just a step we need to do to fill in that gap,” said Broadhead.
In addition, they have Raven sensors that can detect and report where gunshots happened before anyone has started to dial 911.
“When they hear the specific decibel level of a gunshot they will triangulate that from different sensors and immediately give us feedback as to where a shot was just fired,” said Broadhead.
Statesboro police is connected to a Fusus system as well. This lets them live-view surveillance systems all over the city. They just need you to volunteer your business or home’s security cameras, and dispatch can check on your place before the patrol car gets close.
