There is a new approach to crime reduction being implemented by the Ogden Police Department. It is patterned after the real time crime centers of a few major city police departments that started about five years ago but is scaled to the size of Ogden's needs and will fulfill an ancillary role of emergency operation capability for all of Ogden's public safety and public works needs with trained technicians in the event of a natural disaster or need to activate the emergency operations center.
There are about nine real time crime centers across the United States; Ogden has patterned its center after the Memphis model. Memphis has seen a crime reduction every year since its RTCC implementation primarily through the use of the 70 license plate reading traffic cars it has put into service. Ogden will use part of this approach and has purchased one such vehicle. What original LPR cars did, for the last 10 years, was simply read the plate and let the officer know if the plates were expired or the vehicle was wanted for any reason.
