Cracking down on crime

The C4 is constantly bustling with activity and reacting to events in real time. Analysts are pulling up camera views, map overlays, analytics, and other crime fighting applications through unified screen displays. They’re cataloguing data from incident reports, raw intelligence from beat officers and streaming video from a wide network of city-owned, high-definition Axis cameras as well as video collected from private businesses and residential security cameras.

The C4 crew is utilizing information from Axis license plate readers and Axis pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) cameras and responding to alerts from a ShotSpotter system that triangulates the location of a shooting based on the sound of gunfire. C4 staff are even mining open-source web intelligence for threats to the community.

The study, conducted in partnership with Professor Lisa Barao from Westfield State University, was based on a sample of 165 shooting cases – eliminating those that had variables that would prevent the crime from being able to be solved (such as uncooperative victims or undetermined crime scenes). “We reviewed those case files to determine if there was a video component. This involved interviewing detectives as well as matching data up with our own task documentation,” explains Mastroianni. "What we discovered was that we achieved a pretty large increase in solvability just by adding a camera.”

“Motor vehicles have become the nexus of our gun violence investigations,” says Mastroianni. “You might not capture the incident, but if you capture the suspect’s vehicle and put out a BOLO [Be On the Lookout], there’s a good chance you can stop the car and identify the operator, oftentimes with the weapon still in the vehicle.”

To help capture suspects fleeing the scene during investigations, the HPD employs multiple license plate recognition cameras throughout the city. “We recommended this model to the department because it delivers clear, useful images whether at night, dawn or dusk, in bright sunlight, even in shadowy locations,” shares Tyler Cullen of Vulcan Security Technologies. “That’s a huge asset in an investigation.”

When a call came into the C4 about a homicide that had just occurred outside a liquor store, analysts saw that cameras in the area had captured the suspect getting into a vehicle. They tracked the car as it crossed several intersections where Axis license plate readers were able to capture the plate number. “Analysts quickly ran a history on the plate that came back to an address just a couple streets away,” recalls Mastroianni. “Within 30 minutes, investigators had the suspect in custody with the murder weapon in hand.”

“It’s not just the quality of the cameras like the PTZs, which we push pretty hard,” says Mastroianni. “It’s that Axis’ approach to technology is all about mission-driven solutions.” For instance, when the HPD had a pressing need to monitor a particular neighborhood that had been victim to gun violence and insufficient infrastructure to support cameras on every corner, Axis offered just the solution they needed.

“We put an AXIS Q63 Series PTZ camera with 4K resolution atop a building that provided a great line of sight into the area,” explains Tyler Cullen. “The optical zoom gave the department such great detail that C4 was even able to pull meaningful data from adjacent streets.” 

Cullen and Mastroianni view Axis as a partner in the police department’s crime prevention and investigation efforts rather than simply a vendor of technology. “Axis is always at the forefront of creative, very mission-focused designs that you don’t typically see from other vendors,” says Cullen.

He points to a creative solution that the HPD is currently piloting to deter speeding. The deployment integrates Axis fixed cameras with Axis security radars and LED lights from the network strobe siren that flash different colored lights depending on the speed of the motorist. C4 analysts will analyze the data to see if the project has any measurable impact on reducing vehicles speeding through intersections.”

“Our partnership with Axis takes our efforts to create a safer city to the next level,” says Chris Mastroianni. “We know we can count on their creativity and expertise to help Hartford continue to be a great place to live, work, and visit.”