New ‘Real Time Crime Center’ to open in Tallahassee this weekend

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Tallahassee is preparing to open a new Real Time Crime Center, bringing together law enforcement agencies from across the county.

This is an expansion and revamping of the center the Leon County Sheriff’s office created back in 2018. It’s being paid for by the city, county and FSU.

During Wednesday’s city commission meeting, TPD Deputy Chief of Police Jason Laursen announced the center will be opening this weekend.

It’s a $2.3 million project and is a collaboration between LCSO, FSU PD, FDLE and FSU’s College of Criminology.

“This is another step in our effort to address crime in our community,” Commissioner Curtis Richardson told WCTV.

The center will be staffed 24/7 with law enforcement analysts who will help officers in the field.

“They’re going to be able to look at camera systems, license plate readers, those things, and provide that information to officers as they’re responding,” Laursen said. “That should make it safer for the officers in their response and also safer for the citizens of Tallahassee.

Laursen said this will be a huge help when officers are responding to calls. When an officer is rushing to a scene, an analyst could be checking public safety cameras and relaying information to the officer, to help them better respond when they arrive.

“This will allow somebody who’s seated at a computer with multiple accesses to different technologies to read those notes and basically be on scene virtually,” Laursen said.

Laursen hopes this will help law enforcement solve crimes faster.

Commissioner Richardson also has high hopes for the Real Time Crime Center but says it’s just one piece of a larger puzzle.

“It won’t be a silver bullet,” Richardson said. “It won’t solve all the crime issues, but again, it’s just another step in the combination of interventions that we have identified.”

The Real-Time Crime Center is located near FSU’s campus in Innovation Park.