Tech Supports Clear Goals Within City Initiatives
Together, the LED lights and cameras are already helping the city’s real-time crime center to support officers and detectives as they respond to incidents. In one case, officials actually witnessed a homicide at a gas station via the security cameras.
“They were able to give that information to investigators as they arrived,” Pretel says. “Without that, those investigators could not have asked the appropriate questions to the suspects, and it certainly made everything a lot more cohesive. The entire investigative process was sped up. The cameras allow the real-time crime center to see events as they unfold.”
The city runs the LED streetlights at 50 percent brightness, and officials have the flexibility to turn them up or down on demand for public safety purposes — such as assisting with investigations or improving visibility for major events.
While it’s too early for clear metrics, Pretel is hoping that the Safe Smart CLE initiative will not only speed up investigations but also ultimately result in more successful prosecutions. “The No. 1 goal is a reduction of crime in the hotspot areas,” he says. “No. 2 is a shorter investigative timeline and better prosecutions. It makes for a better case if you have excellent digital evidence to prove that something did or did not happen.”
Cleveland leaders are now studying other ways to advance smart city initiatives, including smart parking meters, electric vehicles and environmental sensors. And the city is building out the Safe Smart CLE deployment with standardized equipment that will allow it to easily add new peripherals, such as gunshot detection devices.
Whatever the city does next, one thing is sure: Leaders will take the same approach as they did with Safe Smart CLE — carefully evaluating solutions that will help achieve specific goals.
“For us, this was a very practical opportunity to save money, improve operations and enhance policing,” Jackson says. “That’s what it’s all about.”