WOBM Bonus YouTube video

A new state police center that is up and running in Deptford will coordinate crime-fighting resources and information through six South Jersey counties.

Major Frederick Fife, who heads up the Real Time Crime Center, says when it comes to sharing crime-fighting resources, "what we found is that it is really hard to connect Cape May to Camden County, or Voorhees to Pleasantville. It is very difficult to do that.

"So what we have the ability to do here in South Jersey is to bring these six counties together through our technology and some of the resources that we have. An example of that would be taking information that we can analyze, and push back to law enforcement executives that can give them the ability to fix with a spear rather than a net."

This new center hopes to do operate in a manner similar to state police centers in Newark and Trenton.

"There is less violent crime in South Jersey. So just because a police department does not have a problem with shooting incidents, does not mean they do not have a crime problem, because what we found is the commonality is heroin use and burglaries."

Fife says law enforcement has become very adept at collaborating, and this center will integrate the human element, technology and data in catching criminals.

"I think that we are really at the forefront nationally of what the information sharing environment really needs to look like."

He says no one agency can do this by themselves.

Joe Cutter is the afternoon news anchor on New Jersey 101.5

More From Beach Radio