A police pursuit involving Keller suspects ended in Cobb Park in Fort Worth.
The Pursuit
A police pursuit involving Keller suspects ended in Cobb Park in Fort Worth.
That is where the city’s new regional partnership reportedly came into play. Keller detectives and officers used Flock license plate recognition technology to help relocate the vehicle, and the Fort Worth Police Department’s TRIDENT Real-Time Crime Center identified the car’s location within an hour, per the same Keller Public Safety account. Fort Worth officers found the vehicle, but the suspects fled again once they were spotted.
Suspects Tried to Flee in the Park
The vehicle stopped in the park, and its occupants tried to flee. A female suspect was detained immediately, while a male suspect, identified as Christopher Ray, ran on foot before being caught.
Keller police publicly thanked Keller patrol officers, dispatchers and detectives alongside the Fort Worth Police Department and the TRIDENT Real-Time Crime Center for their roles in the arrests.
Why Keller Joined the Regional Network
The response leaned on infrastructure Keller only recently signed onto. The Keller City Council approved a memorandum of understanding this past summer allowing the city to join Fort Worth’s regional real-time crime center, according to citizenportal.ai, which reported that council members approved item F3 authorizing the mayor and city manager to execute the agreement. Under the reported terms, Keller contributes one employee and limited data access in exchange for 24/7 regional real-time intelligence services.
The arrangement, known as TRIDENT, was expected to bring together Keller police with 14 other police departments and the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, per reporting from Community Impact on the council’s August vote. Fort Worth’s expanded center monitors more than 1,150 cameras and has license plate reader capability, according to Fox4, which described the facility as a hub of technology with an around-the-clock staff.
What Keller’s Participation Involves
Community Impact reported that Keller planned to assign a detective to TRIDENT, provide access to technology-related data including video and license plate reader information, make radio channels available and take part in an advisory role. Fort Worth Police Department general orders describe the Real Time Crime Center as an intelligence hub that can assist outside agencies with ongoing investigations. The orders also require officers to notify dispatch when another agency’s pursuit enters Fort Worth, according to the Fort Worth Police Department. Those provisions do not establish which tools were used in this case or how the pursuit was handled.
A Track Record Officials Point To
Keller officials had already pointed to the regional system’s potential before this week’s arrests. Community Impact reported that Keller Police Chief Brad Fortune cited a prior case in which Fort Worth’s Real Time Crime Center used Flock license plate readers from multiple towns to locate a vehicle within 15 minutes of a road-rage shooting, leading to an arrest within an hour.
