Senate Debates Crime Centers and Crime Scene Crimes

Stateside, 120 municipalities have Real Time Crime Centers. V.I. Police Commissioner Ray Martinez, who has visited several, recommended Tuesday to the Committee on Homeland Security, Justice, and Public Safety that the Virgin Islands get two — one on St. Croix and one on St. Thomas. The department already has the funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior to establish the one on St. Croix.

The Real Time Crime Center aims to allow the police department to capitalize on new technologies for effective policing.

The proposed crime centers would be equipped with gunshot detection technology, a surveillance camera network, automated license plate reading, fingerprint technology, criminal records, and facial recognition capability.

Martinez testified that “police personnel are hard-pressed to make the quick connections and deductions necessary for effective policing” when they can’t access real-time information about “criminals, victims, witnesses, and complainants in various settings.”