Athens police get real-time crime center following Laken Riley murder

ATHENS, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Athens-Clarke County Police are building a real time crime center following the murder of nursing student Laken Riley.

“Tragedies like the Laken Riley murder shape the community. It’s a call to action,” said Lt. Jody Thompson, the department’s public information officer. “After the Laken Riley murder, the Mayor Commission approved additional funds to speed up the process of having our real time crime center come to life.”

“We can see all the incidents that are going on, where are the cameras related to that incident, where our officers are,” said Nick Barker, the department’s senior crime and intelligence analyst.

The center connects surveillance cameras from apartments, businesses and body cameras. It eventually hopes to connect cameras from the University of Georgia’s campus.

“Just in the last month, we’ve been able to close over 30 cases using the real time crime software,” said Thompson.

“Being able to have the eyes and have the resources to assist the officers that are arriving on the scene and giving them the most complete information not only keeps our officers safe but also keeps our citizens safe that are there in and around the scene,” said Barker.

The real time crime center also helps police solve crimes quicker, like the deadly shooting of 20-year-old Cameron Manago.

“In that situation we knew where the cameras were, we knew that was going to capture part of the incident, we knew it was going to capture events surrounding the incident, and we were able to direct our officers in the right direction, so we were able to identify the suspect and get him in custody less than 12 hours later,” said Barker.

The crime center is being expanded. Officers just need more people an businesses to register their cameras.

“People realize how useful this technology is and how it may prevent future crimes like this to happen,” said Thompson.

Cameras can be registered here.