Chicago Police To Unveil High-Tech Additions To Crime-Fighting Plans
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago police plan to implement more technology to help officers fight crime, as a spike in violent crime that left the city with more than 760 murders in 2016 continues at the start of this year.
Police are incorporating smarter policing strategies to fight crime on the streets. Part of the city's crime-fighting plan is to open two strategic decision support centers, in direct partnership with the University of Chicago Crime Lab.
Essentially, police will work with analysts there who can provide real-time intelligence to support the department's deployment and special crime-fighting operations.
Another component includes expanded use of ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology. The department will install 44 new surveillance cameras and police also will be able to use license plate recognition software.
It's real-time information that will be accessible on smart phones and computers.
Police said the ShotSpotter gunshot detection sensors were first installed in small sections of the Englewood District on the South Side and Harrison District on the West Side. More sensors will be installed in both districts, which accounted for more than a third of the increase in homicides last year.
City officials will hold a press conference on Friday to explain these high-tech additions to the force. Police Supt. Eddie Johnson, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and a deputy chief and consultant from the Los Angeles Police Department will be on hand.
