KRMG In-Depth: Technology becoming increasingly vital for police struggling with staffing issues

TULSA — For police departments struggling to hire and retain officers, the use of high-tech systems to help detect crime, support investigations, and bolster evidence has become more or less mandatory.

This year, thus far, Tulsa has a homicide clearance rate of one hundred percent - which is simply remarkable.

[Hear the KRMG In-Depth report on real time information systems and policing here]

While this in no way minimizes the hard work and expertise employed by the detectives, it’s fair to say that the Flock camera system has helped solve some of those cases.

KRMG learned Wednesday that the mayor has received a request to expand the Flock system, and that an agreement to do so was on his desk for signature.

Tulsa Police Capt. Jacob Johnston runs the city’s Real Time Information Center (RTIC).

He tells KRMG he was the first officer charged with implementing the Flock system, which uses license plate recognition (LPR) technology to allow officers to search for a vehicle in real time.

The cameras can also capture specific characteristics of vehicles, including make, model, and color.

Johnston admits he was surprised at just how quickly they started paying off when TPD launched its pilot program.

“They’ve been more helpful than I think I actually anticipated,” he told KRMG Wednesday, adding that “it was almost daily I’d get multiple stories of how they were using it to find a stolen vehicle, or recover somebody who was wanted, or maybe even a missing person, make contact with them to make sure they were okay.”

And the positive results have continued.

“We’ve had success from helping us with petty larcenies that have occurred, shoplifting, all the way to homicides have been solved where we’ve had no other information except for a little piece of a vehicle description, and we were able to narrow it down and effect an arrest based off of that,” Johnson told KRMG.

TPD has also beefed up its body and in-vehicle cameras, contracting with a company called Axon.

They can report officers’ locations in real time, and even be streamed at the RTIC in the event of an emergency.

“As we’re talking, I’m seeing updates about a hit-and-run coming through kind of a channel we communicate on, and they’re using both platforms, the Flock Safety and the Axon, to help sort of identify where the suspect is,” Johnston told KRMG Wednesday afternoon. “So, it’s every day that we’re using technology to be more effective, at locating suspects of crimes.”