New Tech Helps North Richland Hills Police And Firefighters Do Jobs Faster, More Effectively

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - The North Richland Hills Police and Fire Departments showed off new technology Thursday they say will allow them to do their jobs more effectively and in less time.

Jennie Espy, a North Richland Hills Police Department Crime Scene Investigator said, "This is absolutely fantastic technology."

The state-of-the-art device scans everything in its site -- 360 degrees -- and provides 3D photographs of a crime scene, major crash or an arson fire.

It's so accurate, even if there's a missed measurement, investigators can take another measurement by going back into the 3D scene.

"If we needed to take this to court, we could really walk you around the crime scene as if you were there," said Espy.

The technology also helps crash and traffic investigators save time because they no longer have to manually measure everything at a scene.

Ken Boyer, a North Richland Hills Police Department Crash Scene Investigator said, "You're talking hours. So with this, you set this up, scan the scene, and it reduces your time to a fraction of what it was before."

The 3D scans work well at night for fire investigators, who no longer need crews to set up lots of lights to get good photos.

Brent Sauble, the North Richland Hills Fire Marshal said, "We usually only have two guys doing photos. We can probably cut that down to one, and allow people to focus on the investigation side and collecting evidence."

The equipment and training cost more than $70,000 and was paid for through a grant.