Duluth Police Using Federal Funding to Add Text Updates for 911 Calls, Better Identify Crime Hotspots

DULUTH, Minn. – New federal funding will help the Duluth Police Department improve their customer service.   Chief Mike Tusken says the $750,000 will focus on adding or upgrading technology within the department that will focus on three initiatives.

One of them regards SPIDR Tech, a program that gives people who make a call to 911 progress updates on their case through texts and/or e-mail messages.  “It will allow somebody at an accident who is waiting for a police squad to get an alert to know when the police are going to arrive or if they are going to be delayed,” says Chief Tusken.

“More important, if they’re a victim of a crime or wanting their case investigated, they’re going to get updates when there is an update to their case.  Specifically, if you have a case and it’s been assigned they will get a text message update.  If it is going to be charged, they’ll get an update.  If ultimately we need to connect to the victim, we will have the capacity to reach out and contact.”

The second regards Benchmark Analytics, which will be an upgrade to their current early intervention system that tracks an officer’s performance.  “If they have complaints or accidents,” says Chief Tusken, “we are able to track everything about our employees that will ultimately allow us to monitor their progress, their training, and opportunities for us to coach, guide, and mentor them.”

The third regards Socrata, a program that will help the department identify where they need to place more officers for patrols based on the latest crime data.  “We do intelligence-led policing,” says Chief Tusken.  “We do precision policing.  Socrata is something that looks at real crime stats, and has the capacity to put basically hot spot areas for us to respond to that makes us more efficient.”

Chief Tusken says the overall goal for these technology upgrades is to ensure the department is doing its best to serve the city.  “In the absence of having more police officers, you have to be more efficient.  You have to be able to use technology to drive efficiencies and better customer service, and ultimately safety.  This initiative allows us to do all that.”