The University of Illinois Police Department has requested nearly a million dollars in federal funding to open a real-time crime center.
The center would enable police officers to receive more information from a growing number of surveillance methods while responding to incidents, according to UIPD spokesperson Pat Wade.
If the real-time operators find anything of “evidentiary value,” that information can be communicated to the officers, he said.
“We are already using [automatic license plate readers] and we think a real-time crime center would enhance our ability to use those in real-time,” Wade said.
The center would also draw information from drones and other surveillance technologies that have already been purchased, including digital evidence recovery equipment for investigations and dogs trained to detect explosives. UIPD has also purchased additional training courses for officers and emergency management equipment for the Campus Emergency Operations Center that connects police with other first responders.