VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — When officers can’t be everywhere at once, technology becomes an invaluable resource.
The Virginia Beach Police Department uses technology every day as they strive to make the city safer, but they can’t complete that mission alone.
The department cites its Real Time Crime Center as a big part of their success.
Police Services Manager Brandon Kyle said the main software they use is called Fusus, which allows analysts to pool together several different resources, such as Shotspotter and city cameras, to respond to incidents.
“We could ultimately look to see if there are any cameras in the area … instead of waiting ’til an officer can get on scene to start to collect information,” Kyle said. “Our analysts are able to look at these video sources immediately and start to collect information within seconds.”
Still, he told 10 On Your Side that there’s still room to grow.
That’s where the community comes in.
Through the Keep Virginia Beach Safe program, residents can register their home cameras for free or integrate them for a fee so police can tap into that footage during investigations.
“When we started this, there were only 16 cameras that were registered,” Kyle said in speaking to the success of the program. “So within a matter of two months, we are now just under 600 registered cameras across the city.”
Police Chief Paul Neudigate told 10 On Your Side that not having community involvement would be devastating.
“We absolutely have to have the community,” Neudigate said. “We would not solve hardly any of these crimes without community engagement, and the technology helps.”
He added that they don’t only use technology to solve violent crimes, pointing out the success of flock license plate reader cameras.
“Over the last month I know that we have three dozen success stories where our detectives and our officers have definitively said, Flock helped me solve this case. Flock led to the arrest of this individual being able to put people at crimes and captures that data and solve crime is keeping this community safer.”
In recent high-profile cases this year, ShotSpotter has proven to be successful at informing police of shootings in neighborhoods across the city.
The department’s use of technology has been prominent this year with instances of youth gun violence.
The digital evidence portal, used to anonymously submit crime photos and videos, was first used after 8-year-old Landyn Davis was shot and again when a 15-year-old girl was shot and killed at Mount Trashmore.
In a statement about the portal the first time it was implemented, a spokesperson with Virginia Beach police said:
The evidence portal is a new tool made available through Axon’s evidence platform. Last year, the VBPD implemented new technology to enhance our ability to collect digital evidence, submit electronic reports, and analyze crime data in real time. These upgrades allow officers to submit electronic requests for evidence to individual victims of crime or the community at large, depending on the nature of the event at hand.
We have been using this technology on a limited basis with individual victims. Today, we feel comfortable incorporating this software into our investigative process as we seek to increase our community’s engagement with criminal investigations. As this is our first time putting the portal out to the public, we want to evaluate its effectiveness and refine our processes before we incorporate it into future investigations.
“We know everyone has a cell phone now and we know from social media that everyone likes to take photos,” Neudigate said, “and we know that there has to be additional video evidence of the trashmore shooting.”
So, he made a plea to the community.
“Please upload it, share it. There could be something on there that helps us get justice for this poor 15-year-old individual that lost her life in an absolutely senseless act of gun violence.”
To register or integrate your personal cameras with the police department, go to Keep Virginia Beach Safe.