SAN FRANCISCO, May 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 3VR, Inc., the video intelligence company, today announced that the CrimeDex online community of more than 2,500 fraud, loss prevention and law enforcement professionals will now be used by almost 200 members of the Northern California Organized Retail Crime Association (NCORCA).
CrimeDex is a social network that allows law enforcement and business to share business-related crime information. Alerts are created and sent through the entire CrimeDex network to identify criminals wanted for a variety of crimes from check fraud to shoplifting to more serious violent crimes. CrimeDex issued more than 414 criminal alerts last year, leading directly to apprehensions such as a Roseville, Calif. repeat offender Freddie McBride, Jr. Currently, CrimeDex houses information – photos, videos and aliases -- on nearly 200,000 crimes, suspects and wanted criminals.
NCORCA arose in 2008 as law enforcement throughout Northern California looked for a way to share information about several theft crews that were stealing an average of $10,000 per week in clothing from malls and retail stores. NCORCA soon expanded and now allows law enforcement, loss prevention and security professionals to share information, improve investigations and increase convictions.
"CrimeDex is enabling law enforcement and the private sector to work across town, county and state lines," said Roseville, Ca. Detective Sergeant Darin DeFreece, president of NCORCA . "Criminals know no geographic boundaries and the more that retail and law enforcement can collaborate, the better chance we have of catching criminals. CrimeDex is a unique tool that allows us to not only more efficiently fight crime but also solve cases that we could never have worked."
Just last year, DeFreece used CrimeDex to catch McBride, Jr., who stole more than $3,700 worth of jewelry from a Macy's and claimed to have a gun when store security approached him. He was able to leave the premises but not before video surveillance was able to capture images of his face. Police had no leads and no identification for McBride but Roseville police created a CrimeDex alert with the suspect's picture. The alert was noticed by McBride's parole officer, who alerted authorities, called McBride and lured him to her office for a meeting, allowing police to apprehend McBride.
CrimeDex continues to evolve and recently launched CrimeCatcher™, a new facial recognition service. Now, all new uploaded images or 3VR SmartRecorder videos are processed using 3VR's patented facial recognition technology and compared to all faces already in the CrimeDex library. CrimeDex analysts proactively contact users with any potential matches and facilitate further collaboration with other CrimeDex members.
Additional features of the CrimeDex include:
- The ability to create private portals for a specific organization, metro area or area of interest
- Watch list notifications when data matching a wanted criminal is entered into CrimeDex
- Incident-based reporting for multiple crime types
- Video uploading of suspects directly from 3VR SmartRecorders for facial comparisons of wanted criminals
"CrimeDex is a true private-public partnership that is delivering results today," said Jim "Gator" Hudson, creator of CrimeDex and now vice president of CrimeDex services for 3VR. "We expect major expansion within the next year that will enable CrimeDex to become the national standard for cooperation between law enforcement and fraud and loss prevention professionals."
