Inside Atlanta’s High-Profile Security Control Rooms

Officer Stephanie Brown explained that as 911 calls come into the facility, one click onscreen for the area generating the call will pull up the four closest cameras to the vicinity. Footage captured by the video cameras owned by the city of Atlanta is held for two weeks before being deleted. The predictive policing effort spurred by all of the cameras helps pinpoint trouble spots that can be patrolled more frequently and more quickly identify suspects with facial and clothing features during crimes in-progress.

The police foundation will even lease cameras, and help with replacement, repair and maintenance, to private businesses that want to participate and may not have their own cameras. The city looked at other metropolitan systems in place such as those in New York and London for such policing methods, and notes that cities such as Savannah have now visited with Atlanta’s personnel for seeing how this successful model works.