The Broward Sheriff's Office unveiled a center on Tuesday that will allow live monitoring and analysis of what's going on in school hallways and campuses in Broward County.
"We learned lessons from Stoneman Douglas," said Sheriff Gregory Tony. "And one of the pivotal things is one of the things we were able to witness and look at is the ability to have real time intelligence when crimes are happening."
The Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) gives BSO direct access to nearly 10,000 cameras in more than 260 public schools and administrative buildings.
"This opportunity allows us to leverage those assets and security so this partnership is about collaboration, leveraging technology we have in the district," said Superintendent Robert Runcie.
Officials said the RTCC has two major functions: to provide a "strategic command and control capability" to assist law enforcement with active crimes and cases, and to provide an "intelligence capability" to identify persons of interest who have or may commit crimes against county residents.
BSO has had access to the cameras since January and has expanded to the RTCC.
"We have been able to actually monitor real-life incidents, code reds, lockdown in schools because of serious situations within the school or crimes happening outside, and we gave tactical guidance to officers who could see what we were able to see," said Captain Michael Riggio.
