Providence Police highlight ‘limitless’ benefits of new real-time crime center

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The Providence Police Department is upping its game, with the state’s first real-time crime center.

Detective Sergeant Jonathan Primiano has been with the department for 23 years and led the effort to open the center.

“I can tell you that the benefits of this center are limitless to the officers in the field, to the guys who are in the task force developing information, [and] to the investigators who work in the detective bureau,” Primiano said.

According to Primiano, they hope for the center to be operational for 16 hours a day, from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.

There are 12 operators trained to work at the facility, with about four working at a time.

Primiano said the goal of the facility is to improve response times and expedite investigations.

“Any available database, any available video feeds, any [license plate reader] data, any body-worn camera footage, that would all be ingested here into the real-time crime center,” Primiano said. “That would be accessible to us, so that we can take that information and provide actionable intelligence to the officers while they respond to these calls.”

One of the key components of the data monitoring is utilizing nearly 300 camera feeds throughout Providence, including many from homeowners and businesses.

“We can easily identify our suspect from that video,” Primiano said. “And provide the photo of that suspect to our officers that are responding.”

Primiano acknowledged that there may be privacy concerns with such high-level surveillance.

“We don’t have the time nor the manpower to sit here and watch 290 feeds,” he said. “We have calls that we can be responding to virtually that take priority over any of that.”

The center was funded in part by a $1 million earmark secured by Senator Jack Reed.

New York, Hartford and Seattle are among the other cities also using real-time crime centers, with Hartford used as the model in Providence.

Police said anyone who wishes to integrate their private camera into the system can do so on the department’s website.