Tampa police want to bring in a new piece of technology that other Florida law enforcement agencies are already calling a game changer, but City Council members aren't ready to sign off just yet. The department is seeking Peregrine, a data-integration platform meant to help officers search and analyze information they already have much faster, and the council is now requiring individual briefings with police before it will vote on the deal.
Peregrine helps agencies streamline searches and analyze data they already have faster, according to WFLA. Tampa Police Deputy Chief Eric DeFelice explained that the software integrates department data, sorts assets and helps personnel connect information, emphasizing that it is not a camera or surveillance system. The State Attorney's Office issued Tampa police a grant for the technology, and the City Council will vote on approving both the grant and the contract in November.
Council members want to meet with the Tampa Police Department individually to learn more about how officers would actually use the software before that vote happens, per the same report. Councilman Luis Viera reportedly asked whether Peregrine relates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or federal activity, and DeFelice said Peregrine does not relate to ICE. A Peregrine representative identified as Tim Shriver was also present to field questions, and the company maintains that ICE is not among its customers and that data is only shared with another agency when directly instructed to do so.
What the Software Would Actually Do
Peregrine is data-integration software — it does not create new data, and it has no cameras or sensors, according to WFLA's reporting. Instead, it uses data that departments already possess and legally access, pulling it into dashboards that can display calls for service, officer locations and available assets all in one place. DeFelice has pointed to hurricanes, large-scale events and heavily visited areas like Ybor City as scenarios where the tool could help Tampa police move faster, and the platform can also assist investigators and analysts during criminal investigations.
Peregrine's own marketing describes the product as revolutionizing how public safety agencies engage with their data, per police1.com, which notes that law enforcement agencies across the country are using the platform to unify data for faster decision-making. The company also says a single, configurable platform can unify data across systems while adapting to each agency's specific workflows, according to Peregrine. That includes letting personnel unify internal and external data sources, build custom dashboards and set up automated alerts.
How Other Tampa Bay Agencies Are Already Using It
Peregrine is already used by agencies throughout the Tampa Bay area, and the experiences vary by mission. The Largo Police Department has used Peregrine since February 2025 to share data with other law enforcement agencies, the WFLA report notes. Pinellas County Safety and Emergency Services uses it as an efficiency tool for quality assurance, identifying trends in heat-related illness, EMS and fire response times, and dispatch call-taking times, with that data stored in a closed system accessible only to emergency services personnel with proper permissions. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office separately uses the platform to combine data from different resources into a single system.
In Manatee County, Director of Public Safety Jodie Fiske called Peregrine a game changer and described it as a time-saving tool for critical decisions that can save lives. The Manatee County Public Safety Center hosted a demonstration of the Peregrine dashboard, and the agency has already used the software for hurricane response, recent summer storms and monitoring water levels. Manatee County plans to eventually have every responding agency viewing the same information simultaneously. Notably, though, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office told WFLA that it does not use Peregrine, even as the county's public safety department embraces it.
A Growing List of Florida Customers
Tampa wouldn't be the only Florida agency weighing in on Peregrine's expanding footprint. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office plans to use the platform as a single gateway for deputies to search multiple sources of data in the field, while the Pasco County Sheriff's Office onboarded Peregrine alongside neighboring agencies as a shared data-integration solution, according to Peregrine's own materials. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Division of Law Enforcement has also folded integrated data into its conservation and enforcement work, and Peregrine says four Florida public safety agencies have used the platform to serve more than 2.5 million residents.
Tallahassee's Capital Region Real-Time Crime Center, a joint effort between the Tallahassee Police Department, Leon County Sheriff's Office and Florida State University Police Department, has also been working to add Peregrine alongside a video-integration platform called Fusus and gunshot-detection systems, per Tallahassee city records. That center, which opened officially in September 2023 after its infrastructure was completed earlier that year, fielded more than 6,000 requests for assistance from law enforcement agencies in 2024 alone and queried more than 16,000 vehicles, leading to the recovery of more than 100.
For now, Tampa's path forward runs through those promised one-on-one meetings between council members and police before anyone signs off on the grant or the contract. The vote is set for November, giving council members time to press the department on exactly how the software will be deployed on Tampa streets.
