The City of Meridian is looking to build a real-time crime center equipped with the latest in crimefighting technology.

A total of $1.4 million has been earmarked in the 2024 fiscal year to purchase cameras and other equipment needed for the center. In a City Council meeting Tuesday, Police Chief Deborah Naylor Young explained what it is her department is trying to do.

“This is just the first phase of the real-time crime center,” she said.

Meridian Police Department plans to purchase 23 cameras to be installed along the main highways and thoroughfares, Young said. Each of the cameras will be outfitted with license plate readers as well as gunshot detection devices.

At MPD, Young said, the department plans to hire six individuals to provide 24-hour monitoring of the camera feeds. The monitors will be able to view the camera feeds in real time and alert dispatchers if and when criminal activity occurs.

Mayor Jimmie Smith said the new camera system addresses many of the issues raised about the city’s current camera network, which is leased through Mississippi Power. That consists of about 60 cameras and feeds into two monitors above the service desk in the police department’s main lobby.

While the leased camera system is said to have real time monitoring by a third party, city officials have struggled to verify that anyone is watching. MPD does not currently have any staff dedicated to watching the feeds.

Young said the current cameras have been helpful in some situations, but the real-time crime center is a much better option. Having dedicated monitors watching the feeds as well as the gunshot detection will be much more efficient at identifying crime than the odd chance someone notices activity on the screens in place now.

“We can see it if it’s occurring at that time but only if we notice it,” she said.

Prior to developing a real-time crime center for Meridian, Young said she visited Jackson Police Department’s center to see how the technology can help in fighting crime. Natchez and Columbus also have similar camera systems in place, she said.

Councilman George Thomas said he was in favor of fighting crime but didn’t understand why MPD doesn’t have staff watching the city’s current camera network.

“Why aren’t we monitoring the cameras we have now,” he said. “We have a system. We’re capable of monitoring it, but we’re not.”

Meridian still has two years left on its lease of the current camera system, which it isn’t using, Thomas said. How can the council know it won’t spend $1.4 million on a new system only to have MPD not use that one too, he said.

Camera technology has come a long way, Smith said, and it continues to evolve rapidly. These new cameras, if purchased, will have a 10-year warranty, he said, and the city plans to continue to upgrade and add new technology to MPD’s crime fighting resources.

These new cameras, Young said, are better suited to meet Meridian’s needs than what is currently in place and build a good foundation for the real-time crime center to grow.

If approved, Smith said work could begin on the cameras and crime center as early as the first of the year.