GLENDALE — Glendale Police Detective Tom Ward has been with the department for nearly two decades. In that time, Ward never imagined his investigative police work would look like it does today.
"If you came to me 19 years ago and said you're going to be flying drones and playing, ‘Where's Waldo?’ all day,” Ward laughed. “I would have laughed you out of the room."
The Real Time Crime Center inside the Glendale Police Department is the first of its kind in the state, with other Valley cities beginning to utilize the program.
Glendale police say this new technology uses city cameras, some cameras from private businesses, license plate readers and police drones to better help them solve crime.
Glendale Police Chief Chris Briggs said, “It makes us more efficient. It makes our response times better. And it allows us to solve the problem in a more expeditious manner."
The Real Time Crime Center began in 2019 and has over 1,700 cameras.
Ward says some cameras have longer hours than others.
“It really depends on which camera but it's generally the lowest one was 72 hours and the highest one is about 45 days."
Surveillance of any kind has its critics, however, “All these cameras are in the public domain. They're not in inside structures that do not advertise that they have cameras. It's all public domain. And in here, we don't monitor cameras," said Ward.
According to the department, most cameras used by the Real Time Crime Center are visible at city intersections.
Glendale Police says their team is not constantly monitoring the cameras.
Ward communicates with officers on the scene, with what he’s seeing in real-time at the crime center. He said, “I think it changes both ways, de-escalate or escalate.”
Glendale police have made several arrests using this technology. The department hopes to have the Realtime Crime Center operating 24/7.
