Spokane County Sheriff’s Office unveils new high tech center intended to help solve crimes more efficiently and effectively

Spokane County deputies will now be provided real-time information pulled directly from surveillance cameras, social media feeds and other law enforcement agencies while responding to calls for service.

The Spokane County Board of Commissioners and Sheriff’s Office unveiled the agency’s latest addition, a real-time crime center staffed with three analysts with a litany of information sources at their fingertips. The commissioners used nearly $4 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding to get the project off the ground, which is the first center of its kind in Washington.

Commission Chair Mary Kuney said creating the center was an investment in public safety, and that it will help the Sheriff’s Office respond to crimes more efficiently and effectively.

“We are equipping our sheriff’s office with the state of the art resources, as you can see in this room, that will allow them for real -time data analysis, improved situational awareness for our deputies and faster response times for our residents,” Kuney said.

The center resembles a room one might see in a law and justice primetime television show, with walls covered in screens displaying camera feeds, data imposed over maps and live dispatch feeds directly from Spokane Regional Emergency Communications. Seated in front of multiple computer monitors at the front of the room are three analysts who use the information bouncing around the room to better prepare deputies for the scene to which they are responding, said Dustin Baunsgard, interim supervisor of the center.

Whereas dispatchers at the regional 911 center may have to contend with dozens of ongoing calls and may not be able to dive into a particular case, the analysts can dive in on a much deeper scale, Baunsgard said. They can pull a suspect’s criminal history, a live feed of the location if there are accessible cameras and tap into the radio communications between responding deputies to give them a sense of the scene before they arrive.

Providing that additional information can lead to better policing, and bring victims justice sooner, said Lt. Justin Elliott, commander of the intelligence unit for the Sheriff’s Office. Using the center to accurately identify suspects, suspect vehicles or a situation’s circumstances could prevent stops of innocent individuals that may match a description, or the use of force by a deputy rushing into a potentially dangerous situation, he said.

“By doing this, we’re able to be on scene virtually, we’re able to deploy drones and get information from a distance,” Elliott said. “You put an officer in a situation where he’s face-to-face with somebody with very little information, and there’s a high likelihood for a negative outcome. So the more we know when that officer makes contact, the more accurate it’s going to be.”

County deputies, including those who staff the Spokane Valley Police Department, are the primary benefactors of the center, but Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said it is intended to be a tool available to all regional law enforcement agencies. The city of Spokane Valley helped fund the project by devoting $850,000 of their own American Rescue Plan dollars to build the center.

At the analysts’ disposal are live camera feeds from intersections and roadways around the county, some of which are provided by the agency’s own resources, like retired deputy vehicles now outfitted with cameras or digital speedometer signs equipped with license plate readers.

Also included in the system are feeds from private businesses that have agreed to allow the agency access, and cameras at every local school district that Nowels said can only be accessed when absolutely necessary.

Elliot, Baunsgard and Nowels all stressed the importance of transparency and accountability in using the system, and the safeguards in place they hope will give the public faith the center is operated ethically and responsibly. The cameras, information and data are used in a targeted manner for specific calls, and are not used to fish for cases. The camera feeds include only those publicly accessible or those provided with permission, and traffic citations will not be issued using any of that technology.

There are also going to be quarterly reports on the center’s operations in front of the county commissioners, Nowels said.

“We’re battling up against perception,” Baunsgard said. “When you’re operating in a room like this, everybody just thinks it’s voodoo that’s going on here. We want to be transparent about everything we’re doing, and we’re open about it all, we just don’t always know how to communicate it.”

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Mark Gregory said business owners interested in providing access to their camera feeds can contact the agency’s front office, or visit its website, to register and learn more.

Nowels said the Sheriff’s Office already is seeing results from the center, noting it’s been used in recent weeks to quell rumors of an active shooter at a Spokane Valley school by accessing the cameras there before deputies had arrived. School staff and students were able to continue their day without intrusion from law enforcement.

“Really, that’s what we’re driving for here at the real time crime center,” Nowels said. “And with our approach of intelligence-led policing, it is the absence of crime, which can be very difficult to quantify.”

The center also has helped locate 11 missing persons, recover 135 stolen vehicles and led to the arrest or charges filed against 245 suspects since last year, Nowels said. He believes he and other county leaders likely will look back in 10 years and wonder how they ever addressed crime without the center.

“We’ve already had such a huge impact that has been, in my opinion, well worth the significant investment from our Spokane County commissioners,” Nowels said.