S.A.R.I.C. Helps Solve Savannah Crime

97 Metro Police officers are making the trip to Washington next weekend to help with security for the Presidential inauguration - 4 are members of S.A.R.I.C. - the Savannah Area Regional Intel Center.  S.A.R.I.C. is a relatively new and innovative way the police department is gathering and sharing information to help stop crime.  It’s kind of like the C.I.A. for our local police department - a blending of crime analysis and intelligence.  Lt. Mike Wilkins explains,  “We specifically look at trends and patterns and we try to figure out why they’re occurring the way they are - who’s doing it, why they’re doing it, and then take some action based on that information.“

They do the job by both gathering information from and giving it to those who need it - officers on the street, the G.B.I., the F.B.I., as well as other local law enforcement agencies.  Their methods are so sophisticated - officers on the street can get information they need in real time.  “In their cars, they have the M-D-T’s - Mobile Data Terminals. They can get constantly running wanted posters, they can get streaming video from some of these stores’ surveillance cameras on an armed robbery or burglary or things like that,“ says Lt. Wilkins.  To make sure the intelligence gathering is successful; the people who work in the unit have to ensure they can be trusted.  The S.A.R.I.C. room is so secure it requires a finger scan to get in and only about 12 people are cleared for access.  According to Lt. Wilkins, “If we’re not a secure facility - if people realize that the information that comes in here may leak out or may get out, then we lose the ability to get more information.“

Certified officers, analysts, and civilians all work in S.A.R.I.C. together - with the same goal, but diversified jobs.  One traces firearms, two work on nothing but gun cases, others specialize in gangs and all things related.  The unit has crime analysts that provide crime statistics to the department each week.  “The biggest thing for us is as we decentralize people - we centralize information - ‘cause the tendency is as people go out they just don’t communicate as well and so that’s why the need for this type of unit to exist - so that we can get more information to more people,“ says Lt. Wilkins.

S.A.R.I.C. has been so successful here - some other departments around the nation are looking to incorporate parts of it in their efforts.  One recent case in which the information the unit provided proved invaluable - a woman kidnapped here in Savannah - the unit able to track down leads and resolve the case by accessing South Carolina’s SKYEX system.  That’s a database of every law enforcement agency in South Carolina – S.A.R.I.C. is the only entity outside the state of South Carolina to have access to it.