Right spot, quick action
Chowchilla chief tracks ‘wobbly’ Cessna and catches alleged thief
video-chat calls per day, Gamez said. Hours of
service will be expanded to include weekend and
evening hours, and bilingual officers will be added if
customer usage warrants it, he added.
One recent caller whose home was burglarized
used the new video-chat service to tell police he
discovered more items missing from his home. He
gave the officer on his laptop screen a list of the
additional stolen items, and the officer emailed him
an updated police report.
“This is all about increasing the ability of our
community to connect with us in real time,” Gamez
said. “We want folks to freely call in.”
He already is getting calls from police chiefs
around the country about how the video and textchat service works, and how much it costs the
department — under $200 for a trial program.
Currently operating Monday through Thursday from
9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the service requires a person to
click on a button on the Redwood City PD website.
Up pops the face of an officer sitting in front of
two computers ready to answer a question. The
user of the service is not required to have his or her
computer camera on, the chats are not recorded,
and the police can’t trace the user.
Redwood City officers assigned to modified duty
because of injuries or other reasons — thus relegated
to desk work — currently work the shifts on the
video chat desk, with staff members ready to pitch in
if demand for the service grows.
“We aren’t taking a cop off the street to do this,” says
Gamez, who oversees a department of 90 sworn
officers and a total staff of 125 who serve this city of
about 78,000.
Since launching the service in late June, the
Redwood City PD is averaging about 30 to 35
Gamez is an avid proponent of social media as a
tool for law enforcement. A 26-year veteran of the
San Jose Police Department, Gamez said video
interactivity sets a new standard of “communitycentric” policing.
Residents of Redwood City, he said, can use Live
Guide to receive live online assistance with any
concerns or questions about police services, and
help with reporting crimes online.
Gamez said he believes live video chat will
drive down calls for service and allow the police
department to send more officers into distressed
areas of the city where they can better serve
residents.
“We’re really excited about this,” Gamez said. •
“This is all about increasing
the ability of our community to
connect with us in real time...
We want folks to freely call in.
”
Chowchilla Police Chief Jay
Varney picked up his office
phone. “There’s always
something to do when I’m
at my desk,” the 29-year law
enforcement veteran said.
Recently, Varney got to do
something out of the ordinary
for most police chiefs: respond to a crime in
progress.
He happened to be in the right place at the right
time when, at around 2:30 p.m. on March 21,
he spotted a Cessna 172 flying erratically on its
final approach to Chowchilla Municipal Airport,
which is located only about 1/3 of a mile from the
Chowchilla Police Station.
Varney had just finished a late lunch that day and
was pulling into the PD parking lot when he and
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