A gunman holding someone hostage. A child lost in the woods. Police who respond, need to know the safest, and the best spots to conduct their rescues. They now have a new high-tech tool to guide them. Called pictometry, the same photos used by your tax assessor, are helping police to fight crime.
He's patrolled the streets for 15 years, but Sergeant Dave Newman says he's finding out things about DeWitt he never knew because now he has a whole new view. His laptop computer is programmed to pop up aerial photos of the town. “It's kind of like having a helicopter in the air, 24 days a week.”
All of DeWitt’s buildings, bridges, roads, vacant lots, waterways, neighborhoods, can be viewed instantly with this new photo-computer technology. Police imagine a number of scenarios, for example, if they had to do a search in a heavily wooded area like this, it's tough to determine the best spot to set up a command post, or enter, but from above, there's a much clearer view.”
Sergeant Newman: “Now our supervisors, officers will have the capability to direct and search from air level, when we won't have a helicopter in the air.” He can label streets, see a building from all sides, even do a walk, all around the building. Sergeant Newman: “You're able to see much broader views, how the streets connect to each other, and how neighborhoods connect.” A view from above that better connects police to the neighborhoods they protect.
The other advantage, police say, they can quickly print and distribute copies of an area, from all directions, to better coordinate their search and rescues.
