The City of Las Cruces votes unanimously to fund the Real-Time Crime Center

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) – The city of Las Cruces took another step Monday afternoon to combat persistent crime in the area.

The City Council unanimously voted to establish a Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC) during Monday’s meeting.

$1.1 million will be drawn from the Telshor Fund to launch the RTTC, which the city notably used to fund the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The money will be used to build the center within the existing Las Cruces Police Department headquarters.

Chief Jeremy Story first talked about setting up something of this nature in March, shortly after Officer Jonah Hernandez was stabbed to death.

The center will use live feeds from existing intersection cameras and license plate reading cameras to provide real-time data on where crimes or situations are occurring and help the department determine an appropriate response.

The story says it will also help when it comes to tracking down suspects in major crimes.

According to the city, violent crime and property crime have spiked dramatically in recent years, with city data showing increases of 73 percent and 71 percent, respectively, between 2018 and 2022.

“It’s not going to be a silver bullet, it’s not going to be a magic bullet,” Chief Story said Monday.

“(But) it will help us do what we can’t do now. There are several calls and as I listen to these calls, I can imagine how the real-time crime center would help officers solve the problem and also be safer,” he added.

Despite the unanimous vote, some questions about the center’s data tracking and privacy concerns were raised by District 5 Councilor Becky Corran.

“I would hope that this would solve our problems, but not necessarily expand surveillance to share with questionable companies using this information,” Corran said at the meeting.

Chief Story told the council at the meeting that the data would be owned only by the Las Cruces Police Department, and that the software vendor the department would use to monitor cameras could not own it.

Local business owner Vic Villalobos, an outspoken advocate for reducing crime since Officer Hernandez was killed next to his property, said this is a huge step in the right direction.

“We know there is still a long way to go, but we are here to support the chief,” Villalobos said.

Chief Story adds that he hopes a long-term real-time crime center will be built in the future in partnership with the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office.