JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Thousands of security cameras all around Jacksonville create a highly effective crime-fighting network.
Last week the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s “Real Time Crime Center” helped investigators identify the driver and ultimately make an arrest in a deadly hit-and-run crash that killed a star student-athlete.
It was this network of more than 7,700 cameras that helped bring answers to the family of 17-year-old Alaysha Williams.
The center has been used to help solve some of Jacksonville’s most heinous crimes and find missing people.
In the summer of 2023 when a man murdered three people in a racially motivated attack at a Dollar General, it was the center’s cameras that recorded critical information that helped officers piece together a timeline of events.
“It has grown to that level where they can get right on the radio, and the officer that’s responding to the scene is getting really accurate information, direction of travel, things of that nature that they can really use right out of the gate without otherwise knowing that,” said JSO Chief of Investigations Alan Parker.
The cameras did exactly that when a stray bullet hit a school bus in April in the Hogan’s Creek area. Officers said they caught on camera a Jeep leaving the scene. Officers used multiple cameras to track the Jeep back to a home after catching the plates on camera.
It was just five years ago when the city of Jacksonville first invested $3 million into the center.
At that time, News4JAX took you inside when it was just a few monitors. It has grown a lot since then and Parker said it will continue to grow over the next decade.
The cameras directly help officers on the street.
“They’re ahead of it by the time patrol or detectives, whoever gets the response to it, they already have that information to work,” Parker said.
Chief Parker was there as News4JAX got clearance to go into the dark high-tech room, but in reality, it’s Sgt. Robert Lisotta’s world.
“A lot of times we forget to mention, that this helps in way more than just criminal element but missing persons. License plate reading cameras have been instrumentally helpful in that, somebody goes missing, elderly folks, even children, access to the cameras in the area can help not only to identify where they went, but it can give a direction for law enforcement to canvass,” he said.
It’s something that Jacksonville residents can help officers with when minutes are critical.
Through Connect Duval you can let JSO know you have a home security camera.
As of this month there are 3,674 registered cameras/addresses and 3842 integrated cameras.
JSO says not only do they not have live video access to the cameras. They never will.
There are two types of cameras in the networks. The integrated and registered cameras/addresses.
The registered cameras mean JSO knows how to reach the owner. JSO says the integrated cameras are usually with business owners that allows them to use if need be.
“We may knock on your doors if there’s been a crime in your immediate area,” Sgt. Lisotta said.
Officers are also looking to harness business security cameras.
“Part of the process is we have access whenever we need it. We are working on the back end to notify businesses if we are accessing it,” Sgt. Lisotta said. “Obviously, we’re only going to be accessing it if law enforcement is already responding to your location. A lot of times we may access it if something may have passed by your business. In those instances, we typically do not reach out to the business and say, hey, we pulled your cameras during this date and time.”
There are some people who say it gives too much access to your daily life.
“It can be looked upon as a shadiness to invade on people’s privacy by looking through private entity cameras or government cameras, city cameras. The fact is, the expectation of privacy in the public is much more reduced than it is in your private home. So when you’re out moving about in the public, there is no invasion of privacy,” Sgt. Lisotta explained.
As the program catches up with all the cameras and additions, JSO is catching up with the growth too and expanding in the new facility.
“It’s a game changer. The information that these guys are able to give us in a real-time like I said, an actionable time frame where we can use it from the beginning as opposed to trying to go back and find that information and be behind the eight ball, trying to catch up,” he said.
It’s a place where JSO can continue to watch for the unexpected, the vulnerable, and anything else that may help solve a crime.