Alert to Arrest in Four Days: Roseville, CA Police Apprehend Convicted Felon Using CrimeDex

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, September 28, 2010 (Press-News.org) Today, 3VR Security, Inc., (http://www.3vr.com/) the leader in Intelligent Surveillance and Search, in partnership with security integrator Surveillance Systems Integration, announced that the Roseville, CA Police Department identified and arrested a convicted felon just four days following the attempted robbery and threatening of a security guard of a major department store using CrimeDex, 3VR's online community of fraud, loss prevention and law enforcement professionals dedicated to stopping crime.

"Using CrimeDex, we were able to make a quick arrest on a case that was otherwise going to be unsolvable," said Darin DeFreece, detective sergeant, Roseville Police Department.

The case involved an unknown suspect who attempted to steal high-end jewelry from a department store and then threatened a security guard with a deadly weapon before fleeing the scene.

"In most cases it would have been very difficult to apprehend a suspect following this kind of confrontation, but the store was able to provide us with an image of the suspect from their own surveillance system," said DeFreece.

The Roseville Police Department submitted the alert into CrimeDex, outlining the suspect's description and course of events. Just three days later, a Sacramento parole officer, and active CrimeDex user, recognized the suspect as a former parolee, recently released from Pelican Bay State Prison. He called the suspect in, and within four days of the CrimeDex alert, the suspect was in custody.

"CrimeDex has brought surveillance, collaboration and crimefighting to a new level," said DeFreece. "Prior to CrimeDex, we were contacting people one by one. Not only is that inefficient, but there's no information sharing and coordination between communities. We've never seen anything like this."

DeFreece continued, "Other alert systems dump messages like spam - there are too many to sift through so they just get ignored. CrimeDex is much more specific and offers tremendous search capabilities. I get exactly what I'm looking for. Particularly in Northern California, many repeat offenders migrate from one city to the next, moving from Sacramento to the Bay Area, but stay within the region and repeat the same crimes in different locations. CrimeDex enables us to close the gap. It's the difference between apprehending someone for a single crime they commit and convicting them of all the crimes they have ever committed. We've only just started using it and already it has aided significantly in several cases."

The City of Roseville's vision for collaborative crimefighting extends beyond 3VR's CrimeDex to include using the 3VR SmartRecorder, which can be found at the following link: http://www.3vr.com/products/smartrecorders . With services from Surveillance Systems Integration, the City of Roseville has installed 3VR SmartRecorders, a complete video management system that provides video analytics and a next generation video search engine unparalleled in the industry. Through 3VR's remote monitoring capabilities, Roseville Police Department has access to the city's 3VR system, allowing heightened situational awareness and rapid response to potential citywide threats. The SmartRecorder's video search engine makes it easy to search video and pinpoint specific people or vehicles in minutes, dramatically shortening investigations and leading to quicker arrests, and even prevention. With a direct integration between 3VR's SmartRecorder system and CrimeDex service, DeFreece can upload surveillance video directly from his 3VR SmartRecorder. Once in CrimeDex, 3VR's software analyzes the video for face and license plate matches against other crime related video contributed by other CrimeDex users.

"We're working with retailers, financial institutions and other law enforcement agencies to promote the use of CrimeDex and the 3VR SmartRecorder because of its tremendous potential as a crimefighting tool," said DeFreece. "No other service offers the search capabilities and collaboration potential that 3VR does."

"CrimeDex is an invaluable resource for loss prevention professionals in their efforts to connect with law enforcement agencies to quickly and accurately gather information to support criminal investigations," said Brian Van Norman, senior director at Surveillance Systems Integration. "The service allows our customers to not only access critical information quickly, but also to join with other security personnel to safely trade relevant video, images and data to facilitate better security operations within their respective and surrounding communities."

"We started CrimeDex because we are dedicated to helping investigators and law enforcement collaborate to stop crime," said Jim Hudson, vice president of CrimeDex Services at 3VR. "Our goal is to provide a sophisticated yet easy-to-use platform for subscribers to share critical information in order to expedite criminal investigations and work together more efficiently to solve crimes, catch repeat offenders and prevent fraud and theft. Needless to say, we are thrilled to see that come to life in this way."

About CrimeDex
Launched in 2001, CrimeDex currently supports over 1,000 member agencies and allows members to share crime data within a safe and secure platform. It features group collaboration capabilities presented in a simple user interface through which users can create member groups, share relevant information, distribute group email alerts and interact via their own portal. This interface offers a group discussion board, a shared calendar and access to individual group member profiles. CrimeDex subscriber groups can be created based on geographical region, affiliation with a particular association or organization, involvement in a particular investigation or any other parameter. For more information, please visit crimedex.com.

About 3VR
3VR Security, Inc. is the global leader in Intelligent Surveillance and Search (ISS) - a faster, more reliable, and less expensive way to fight crime, ensure people's safety and improve business efficiency. With 250 billion hours of video captured every year in the U.S., the award-winning 3VR Intelligent Surveillance Platform makes it possible to efficiently mine and manage it. 3VR is the security standard for hundreds of global customers, including leading banks, retailers, governments and law enforcement agencies. Based in San Francisco, CA, the company is privately held with funding from Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Buyers, VantagePoint Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Menlo Ventures and DAG Ventures. 3VR's SmartRecorder is the three-time winner of the SIA Best New Video Product Award and was named Security Product of the Year from Frost & Sullivan in 2006 and 2007, among other awards. For more information, please visit http://www.3vr.com/.

About SSI
Surveillance Systems Integration is a leading security video integrator that specializes in bringing advanced solutions to law enforcement, government, casinos, retail and virtually all commercial security video market segments within the industry. For more information please contact SSI at 800.508.6981 or visit www.ssicctv.com.

Media Contacts:

Whitney Glockner Black
3VR Security, Inc.
whitney(at)3vr(dot)com
+1 415 874 2527

Virginia Zimpel or Sara Schulte
LaunchSquad
3vr(at)launchsquad(dot)com
+1 415 625 8555