BEAUMONT, Texas — In less than a month, the Beaumont Police Department's real-time crime center will being fully operational.
This will give police real-time access to cameras all across the city. It includes city cameras, ring doorbell cameras and even traffic light cameras.
Police believe it will be a game changer.
The first 48 hours is crucial when a serious crime is committed. Police hope to cut that down to 48 minutes with this technology.
"I think it's a great tool to use where we can all work with each other and keep Beaumont safe," said Tim Postlewait, manager of Thristy's.
Some businesses in the city, like Thirsty's, have already hopped on board with BPD's Fusus and real-time crime center.
Postlewait says their video was instrumental in solving a shooting at the DMoney Daquiri Lounge in 2023.
"They are running across the street it was just a stampeded. Obviously people trying to get away from the area and we were able to access the attacker or the gunman that night," Postlewait said.
"If that situation were to happen again today, that would give our officers real-time access to viewing those cameras as it was happening," said Haley Morrow with the Beaumont Police Department.
Morrow says they department has spent the past six months getting the system online.
"We can't always rely on eye witness accounts but we can rely on cameras," she said.
Fusus can be used to pull up registered and integrated cameras from someone's home, business or even the license plate reader camera on College Street and I-10. For officers it's all just a click away.
"They are able to quickly figure out a suspect vehicle, where it's registered," Morrow said.
She says it'll help officers as they go from call to call. Just yesterday cameras spotted a driver who appeared to be having a medical emergency.
"Essentially Fusus brings all our different systems and resources together in one platform," Morrow told 12News. "That's an example of what it will be like once it's fully staffed, have the ability to have someone inside the real-time crime center, knows that we have cameras in that area and was ale to pick up the vehicle and give that information."
At Thirsty's, Postlewait is happy to be helping officers make the city even safer.
Morrow says Fusus will also be integrating dispatching systems like CAD and the department's reporting systems called RMS and even body cameras.
This all creates a seemliness streamlined operation for officers and detectives.