By GLENN SMITH
The (Charleston) Post and Courier
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Police officers filing reports from their cruisers. Computers matching similarities among crimes. Wireless cameras monitoring the streets. A Web site alerting citizens to crimes in their neighborhoods.
These are just a few of the innovations Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen hopes to bring to his department by year’s end. City Council already has approved money to fund some of the initiatives, and more plans are in the works.
Since taking over as the city’s top cop in late 2006, Mullen has made it a priority to improve the Police Department’s technological and analytical capabilities. The goal, he said, is to make the department more efficient, target resources where they are needed most and ensure officers on the street have timely access to the information they need to do their jobs.
“Technology is an accelerator for the other things we are doing,” he said. “It saves so much time and really increases the efficiency of what we’re doing ... It opens up a huge amount of opportunities for us.”
For several years, the Charleston Police Department had lagged behind some other area agencies in incorporating cutting-edge technology into its arsenal.
North Charleston police were using computers to track reports, analyze data and map crime trends five years ago. Mount Pleasant police followed suit soon thereafter. Charleston officers, on the other hand, were writing reports in longhand on carbon paper and tracking homicide cases in a vintage ledger book.
Until recently, the department didn’t even have voice mail on its phones.
That’s all changing now.
Charleston City Council recently approved $2.4 million to upgrade a 15-year-old computer-aided dispatch and records management center for the police and fire departments.
The upgrade will help police better track and analyze information that can then be fed quickly to officers in the field via computers in their cruisers.
Officers on the street will be able to enter reports and receive crime alerts, suspect photos and other key information with just a few keystrokes, Mullen said.
Mayor Joe Riley said the technology will make for a more effective police force.
“They are on the street while they’re doing this, so we don’t lose their presence, their visibility,” Riley said. “It’s great.”
Crime analysts already are using computer software to identify and map trends, patterns and hot spots of activity throughout the city. The new system can automatically sort through reports, searching for similarities among crimes and the people involved, Mullen said.
Police also are moving ahead with plans to purchase and install video surveillance cameras in high-crime areas to monitor public spaces for signs of trouble. Cameras can help police spot crimes in the making and better track crooks as they try to make their getaway, Mullen said.
Police hope to take advantage of wireless technology to allow for the cameras to be moved around the city as needs change. Specifications for the cameras are being drafted, he said.
Mullen shepherded a similar video surveillance program as a police commander in Virginia Beach, Va. Police in that city have made great use of technology over the years, including an interactive Web site that allows citizens to research crime data.
Mullen said he hopes Charleston residents will have that same ability by year’s end. An upgraded Web site will allow people to view crime information by neighborhood and street, as well as provide basic information about incidents, he said.
Robert Kaminski, associate professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina, said many police departments across the country have already employed the methods Charleston is now undertaking to better target crime.
The movement largely grew from New York City’s successful Comstat (short for computer statistics) program, started in the mid-1990s and widely credited with helping to reduce violent crime in the Big Apple, he said.
“It absolutely can help, and a lot of departments have been doing this for some time now,” Kaminski said. “When you’re looking for crime patterns, trends, it’s just a smarter way of doing it.”
Copyright 2008 The Post and Courier