TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) -
The Toledo Police
Department (TPD) has asked the city's public safety, law and criminal justice committee
for additional funds to purchase software to use with the new Sky Cop cameras.
TPD currently has 73
cameras and two mobile trailers watching Toledo streets. By spring they hope to
install 70 more. The software they're after would help them analyze the data
from all the cameras and make geographic profiles of high crime areas, as well
as predict at-risk crime areas. It would cost an additional $380,000.
The software would be
chosen after a bidding process from companies such as IBM and Microsoft.
Police say it would help
them take a more proactive approach to crime prevention in Toledo.
"It will allow us to
discover some hidden trends and patterns in the crime right now," said Captain
Michael Troendle of TPD. "This software will help us actually run the
statistics on it and find more in-depth patterns and trends."
City leaders, however,
argued that those funds could be used elsewhere. TPD currently uses a program
called "Crime Stat" that works similar to the requested software, but it's
free.
Councilman Mike Collins
said the money should go toward hiring more police officers or civilian
employees.
"Without street strength,
I don't care how many cameras you put out there," he said. "Cameras do not put
handcuffs on people. Cameras do not make the arrests."
If the committee doesn't
approve the funding request, TPD could petition to have the ordinance brought
before city council.
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Now. All rights reserved.
Over 70 cameras currently monitor Toledo streets.
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