New system, cameras and business partnerships
The city of Shreveport is rolling out a new weapon to battle increasing violent crime and protect public safety. The city is standing up a Real-Time Crime Center at Government Plaza. The center's goal is to provide Shreveport police information to assist in investigating anything from residential car burglaries to active shooter situations.
Keith Hanson, chief technology officer for the city and architect of the RTCC, described it as a "video help desk" for law enforcement. The city is in the process of deploying 270 video cameras in clusters of three on 90 utility poles across the city. The RTCC also is collecting a registry of security cameras from businesses and residents. Inside the RTCC, analysts monitor Caddo 911 traffic and correlate possible surveillance video that could aid an investigation.
"What we built is a room full of analysts who are tech-savvy, but they have criminal justice backgrounds, like a degree — either a bachelor's or a master's. They have dispatch experience or they have law enforcement experience. Those are the only people we are hiring. They know what an officer is looking for in the heat of the moment, and what a detective is wanting to know when they ask for video of a scene."
Hanson stressed that the RTCC is not tapping into and monitoring any private surveillance video feeds.
"We do not have magic internet pipes into your residential home cameras," he said. When a resident or business registers a surveillance camera, the RTCC does not get access to live video from the camera. Instead, the analysts at the RTCC plot that camera location on a map of the city.
As the analysts monitor dispatch calls, the RTCC software can identify registered cameras that might have helpful footage. The system sends a request for video footage from a specific date and time to the camera owner, with a link to a secure server where the owner can choose to upload that segment of surveillance video. If the analysts deem the footage valuable to an investigation, it is passed along to the police.
"This is replacing the process of an officer canvassing a street, knocking on doors, asking for footage, etc.:' Hanson said. "Now you can upload it, and we can put it on their phone in a few minutes. That's going to save tons of man hours and solve cases more quickly."
The RTCC will have the ability to monitor live footage on the 270 city-owners' cameras. Before those cameras are activated, the image is reviewed to ensure it does not capture footage anywhere there is not a reasonable expectation of privacy, Hanson said.
Businesses also have the option of purchasing a small computer with the RTCC software installed on it. If a business chooses this option, it will create "a virtual highway of your feeds into our Real-Time Crime Center," Hanson said. But that does not grant the RTCC continuous access to monitor the streams from those feeds.
"It has up to four cameras for 30 days," Hanson explained. "It never leaves the business until we need it. When we click the button, then it streams into the Real-Time Crime Center from the hard drive."
He added that businesses that choose this option also could decide how many days of footage to store on the hard drive.
Hanson said the RTCC has 10 analysts working now out of 12 budgeted for the RTCC. The analysts are working in shifts with two to four people working at any time. They are plotting cameras on the map as residents and businesses register those cameras. They also monitor dispatch calls to refine the procedures and identify strategic locations for the city's cameras before those are deployed. Hanson said the primary objective now is getting as many business and residential cameras registered as possible. "This is like antibody cells in our bodies, except throughout the city:' he said. "This is the way you fight it. Door handle jugglers and people stealing guns and stealing cars will totally get shut down by your Ring doorbell." Cameras can be registered online at https://cityofshreveport.fususregistry.com/.
Hanson said the budget for personnel and software for the RTCC is $500,000 a year. The city's cameras are being built with $90,000 from a grant.
Hanson said the entire process is constantly audited to ensure, among other things, that policies and privacy measures are being maintained.
The RTCC has faced scrutiny during its standup process. Hanson said one of the questions that has been raised is why the RTCC is a division of the city's Information Technology department instead of part of the police department.
"You know who's not asking me why it isn't in the police department? The police department," Hanson said, "You know who's not saying there needs to be an officer in there? The officers. They're actually telling me specifically your don't need a blue-suiter in there."
Shreveport City Councilman Grayson Boucher was one of those who raised questions about the RTCC.
"As the public safety chair for the council, I met numerous times about the RTCC and the use of cameras:' Boucher said. "We were under the impression it would be at the 911 Center or at the police station. I was concerned about non-police employees having access to those cameras and about it being at Government Plaza."
Boucher pointed out a 2019 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against a similar RTCC in New Orleans. The suit claimed the city was keeping the location of its cameras a secret. The judge ruled the city had to reveal the locations of the cameras.
Boucher said it was the process of standing up the RTCC that he opposed.
"I am not opposed to a camera system," he said. "But we didn't do our due diligence. We moved too fast."
Hanson, who describes himself as a "super-geek" regarding cybersecurity, said he understands the privacy concerns and factored them into the process.
"I've thought through all of that," he said. "I am a privacy wonk at home. I care about this stuff, and I don't want it to be ' 1984.' I get it. It is scary. If you're OK with stolen vehicles being out there for six months at a time, you and I are going to get crossways about that."