Providence opens Rhode Island’s first ‘real time crime center’
Providence, Rhode Island DenisTangneyJr via Getty Images
The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island warns the system could normalize constant surveillance and threaten privacy rights.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
Providence Police are now tapping into private cameras to try to solve crimes quicker — and it’s all being done voluntarily.
The city this week announced the launch of a “Real Time Crime Center” where detectives can access live feeds from hundreds of cameras to gather “actionable” information to rapidly respond to incidents via Fusus, a police surveillance technology.
Providence is the first city in Rhode Island to launch an operations center of this kind, according to the city’s announcement.
“By equipping our officers with real-time tools and intelligence, we are modernizing our approach to policing and ensuring faster, more coordinated responses that keep our communities safer,” Mayor Brett Smiley said in a statement.
The new operations center located inside the police department’s Major Crimes Unit integrates security cameras, license plate readers, body cameras, and 911 data that analysts can share in real-time with officers.
Private citizens and businesses can voluntarily register their cameras to assist police in tracking crimes.
So far, 21 private citizens or businesses have given Providence Police access to 145 cameras, city spokesperson Anthony Vega confirmed in an email to Rhode Island Current. An additional 145 city-owned cameras are part of the system.
As of Wednesday, the city had around half a dozen pending applications from residents who wanted to link their cameras to the new crime center, Vega wrote.
The city will pay Arizona-based Axon Fusus $750,000 to run the system through at least July 2028, according to the contract the city signed in June 2024. The agreement technically runs for two years from the active start date, but automatically renews each year for up to three more years, as long as the Providence Board of Contract and Supply approves the funding.
Another vendor, Constant Technologies, has also worked on the real-time crime center, according to Smiley’s office. A copy of that contract was not immediately made available.
To cover the cost, the city is using a $1 million federal earmark secured by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed in 2023, according to the city’s announcement.
Reed said the new operations center will help Providence police stop, and solve, crimes while ensuring that “law enforcement is accountable to the public.”
“As with any new technology used by law enforcement, balancing public safety, privacy, and civil liberties is paramount and there must be stringent safeguards and oversight,” Reed said in a statement.
But the city’s crime center has drawn concerns from the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, which is drafting a formal letter to the city over what it calls the “normalization of constant surveillance.”
“Making a whole web of someone’s movements throughout the day can really do a number on surveillance,” Madalyn McGunagle, a policy associate for the ACLU of Rhode Island, said in an interview Wednesday.
The mayor’s office stressed that officers will not monitor security cameras in the system 24/7, nor will they pull up live feeds randomly. Shared footage is used solely in response to active criminal incidents or public safety emergencies, according to the city’s announcement.
The Real Time Crime Center is staffed for 16 hours a day, Vega said.
Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.