SPRINGFIELD – A robbery is taking place. Dispatchers transfer a 911 call to an analyst who can then pull up a map to show where the crime is taking place and call up images from surveillance cameras. The analysts can use other cameras to track the movement of a getaway car and run a license plate they detect. All of this information is conveyed to officers on the streets.

Sounds like something from a TV show? It’s not. Springfield will be the first city on the Northeast to bring in a “real time intelligence platform” to aid in the fight against crime.

Police Commissioner John Barbieri and Mayor Domenic Sarno introduced the new initiative on Oct. 16. Barbieri said the new system would assist officers in responding to situations as well as improving their safety and those of citizens.

The system cost the city $1 million to install and implement, but it is expected not only to help officers address on-going situation, but it will also help to pinpoint areas of the city where crime is expected to happen, Sarno said.

Tom Gross, the director of Command Center Solutions for Motorola Solutions Inc., the company that has developed the software, said radio has been the “backbone” for public safety but this system goes well beyond the capacity of radio communications.

Gross and his colleague Jerry Napolitano ran a simulation to show the capacities of the system. Springfield, they noted, is in a good position to begin with various surveillance cameras already installed as well as the ShotSpotter system and arrangements with private business to monitor their own video feeds.

In their simulation, a robbery takes place at a pawn shop. Once a dispatcher hands the call over to an analyst the surveillance footage at the store can be accessed. Gross noted the system will empower the analyst to actually rewind and place the footage through the stores own DVR.

In the exercise, the robbers have fled the scene in a white pick-up truck with a moon roof. Using video footage from a nearby highway the analyst can use image recognition software that will search through hundreds of images of vehicles on the highway to find the truck and help determine where it might be going.

Gross used another example of a domestic violence call. Using the system, an analyst can see how many times before officers may have responded to a call at that address. There may already be a mug shot of the alleged perpetrator or his list of previous crimes and firearms records. All of this information can be then sent to police rushing to the scene.

The software combined with the data offers “tremendous capabilities,” Gross said.

William Schwartz, the director of crime analysis for the department, explained the software is “leveraging the technology that is already in place.”

Gross said the company is already working with police officials in Elgin, IL, Cincinnati, OH, and St. Louis, MO. He added that Michigan officials are looking at a statewide application of the software.

The crime analysis unit will initially be staffed seven days a week during the peak activity hours of 8 a.m. through 3 a.m. and will eventually be in operation 24 hours a day. Schwartz said the system would be fully deployed next spring.

Sarno noted the new software was one of the five initiatives Barbieri had said he would undertake to improve public safety in the city.