San Pablo Police Department: Engaging the community by investing in technology

• Violent crime has dropped significantly in San Pablo, California, since the San Pablo PD began investing heavily in technology in 2011.
• The police department credits its community for supporting continued investments to reduce crime.
• Implementing Peregrine enabled the San Pablo PD to better identify priorities and enhance accountability.

SAN PABLO, Calif. — San Pablo was once the most violent U.S. city per capita, experiencing frequent shootings, assaults, homicide, and gang activity in the mid to late ‘90s. But since the city and police department began investing heavily in technology in 2011, San Pablo has seen an 80% reduction in gun crime.

San Pablo Police Department Chief Brian Bubar credited the decrease in crime to enhanced communication, proactive city efforts, ongoing community support, and — of course — improved access to public safety technology. Between 2011 and 2017, San Pablo implemented 134 situational awareness cameras, 16 automated license plate recognition cameras, and gunshot detection software.

All that new technology brought a high volume of data, which the police department initially struggled to manage.

“The complexity of bringing that data and overlaying it over multiple different technology platforms was a significant challenge,” Bubar told Police1. “The police department was looking for software to make data tangible and accessible in a valuable way to our community and staff.”

Enter Peregrine: The San Pablo PD was Peregrine’s flagship customer, with co-founders Nick Noone and Ben Rudolph embedding at the agency’s investigation unit for two years to better understand its technology challenges and needs.

“They just built a platform that was responsive for our needs and our community needs,” Bubar said.

To learn more about how the San Pablo PD made its city safer and inspired Peregrine’s data integration technology, read the full article on Police1.