LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — The Little Rock Police Department has been pushing to build on the early success of its real-time crime center, but to do that they need more people and cameras to join.
"I think that cameras have a 100% benefit," said Samuel Ellis. "Because if anything happens we have a face, license plate number."
Ellis is the owner of Rock Town River Outfitters, and he is someone who signed his business up to be a part of the real-time crime center.
When a crime happens in a certain area LRPD will then send a notification to all of those who are in the program so that they can check their cameras.
"We've only scratched the surface of what I believe that we can do more with," said Chief Heath Helton of the Little Rock Police Department.
The real-time crime center started a couple of years ago and it allows police to use cameras around the city as crime happens.
"I'm baffled by the way sometimes we live now that every school, every hospital, every mall, public space out here should have their cameras integrated with the Little Rock Police Department or any law enforcement across this country. That is vital to the world we live in right now," said Chief Helton.
In the last five years, violent crime has gone down by about 5% in Little Rock, and the mayor explained that it's something we can attribute to the new technology implemented by the police department.
"It's to ensure we are keeping crime front of mind and when something happens we are able to target it, alleviate it as quickly as possible," Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. added.
If you would like to learn more about the real-time crime center, please click here.