Fort Worth police officers are armed with a new tool to fight crime – a high-tech computer program that uses the latest data to map crime hot spots.
The program, called Omega CrimeView Dashboard, allows officers to zero-in on crime trends in neighborhoods and even identify possible suspects using their mobile computers.
"We have to come up with new ways and new ideas to stay ahead of what's going on out here, especially as the population of Fort Worth keeps growing," said Sgt. Dalton Webb, who is one of the first to be trained on the new software. "We can focus on specific areas that are having particular problems."
On a single screen, for example, Webb can plot hot spots for high-priority calls, where officers are making traffic stops, and the locations of recent burglaries.
If officers notice a certain crime plaguing a certain neighborhood, they can even pull up a map of parolees in the area to identify possible suspects.
The software also can identify locations with a high number of recent car accidents.
"It's a great tool for a supervisor because if we get a certain area that is getting (high-priority) calls, we can move our assets into those areas for a quicker response time," Webb said.
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Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald plans for all officers to eventually get trained on the program.
"They can look at real-time crime stats, run their own numbers, run their own hot spots, to develop their own plans to deter crime," Fitzgerald said, following a city council meeting Tuesday.
The software is made by TriTech Software Systems of San Diego.
Fort Worth is one of the first communities to use the program in North Texas.
