Taking an inside look at the Naples Police Department’s Technical Analysis Center

WINK News got an inside look at the new license plate reading technology being used by the Naples Police Department.

Morning anchor Cory Lazar got the invite and takes us behind the scenes of the brand new Naples police technical analysis center (TAC).

“So from here in the in the TAC, we can run operations. From here we can switch those cameras, those right now,” said Ciro Dominguez, “Those are license plate recognition on your right, and they are in different intersections. If one of those tags comes back stolen or wanted or something and notifies us and says, ‘Hey, this vehicle got hit and it’s wanted for whatever.'”

The license plate readers work in real time and each plate is scanned into the system.

The TAC is not manned full-time, but one day that’s the goal.

“So let’s say we’re having an event and it’s, it’s all down at the pier, or it’s fifth avenue, the parade, or whatever, we pull them up on the big screen, and so we’ll have folks here in real time be able to say, ‘Hey, watch this. Do this. There’s a car on the way here.’ So now we have overwatch with the cameras.” said Dominguez.

All the city cameras are controlled from one place.

The other new tools to help get to you faster and more efficiently in an emergency are new radios.

“The dispatcher knows, ‘yeah, I know that’s his area, but he’s closer’, that kind of stuff. So that works out really good for command and control of your troops and but more importantly, in an emergency, how to move people around.” said Dominguez.

On one screen, little blue icons show the location of all the Naples police officers in real time. Now with an enhanced partnership with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, each deputy is also listed live on the screen.

“There’s a lot of positives to that. So new radios, better tracking of personnel, especially for emergency situations. We know where everybody’s at,” said Dominguez.

The chief also told Cory that if there were something very serious, like a mass shooting, this center helps with strategic cohesion between departments to adequately respond.