About

Located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee the Mt. Juliet community has seen tremendous growth over the last decade, with over 35,000 residents who now call it home. The Mt. Juliet Police Department (MJPD) has 79 full-time employees and nearly 50 volunteers who are committed to the safety of residents and visitors by providing the best possible service and being community strong.

Challenge

According to MJPD Captain Tyler Chandler, vehicle burglaries were on the rise across the Nashville region. The major problem was that vehicle theft offenders were fleeing Nashville to suburban Mt. Juliet. Captain Chandler sought to find an ALPR solution to further assist law enforcement with keeping the community safe. The challenge for MJPD was two-fold. Not only was there a need to protect citizens and apprehend criminals but also a need to educate residents about how ALPR technology would benefit the community.

Solution

After vigorous testing of top ALPR companies across the industry, MJPD selected Rekor to helm the Guardian Shield Program. Guardian Shield is the community’s ALPR program which alerts law enforcement on vehicles associated with a crime and on a hotlist. Alert information is generated from data entered in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. Thirty-seven locations were identified to deploy fixed Rekor Edge Max cameras and Rekor Scout® software. These systems were installed at every entrance and exit for major intersections in the Mt. Juliet community.

“Rekor simply performed the best, they had the best alert times, and they picked up through all types of different weather and lighting conditions. The back-end software and their customer service, the sales team - everything was Top Notch and that's when we decided to go with Rekor.” - Capt. Tyler Chandler

Another factor in the decision to choose Rekor was the department’s desire for a company that would work to ensure their needs were met whether its changing programming or adjusting technology to make it work. Additionally, the Rekor Scout platform is web-based, user-friendly, and does not require IT to install software on different departmental systems.

“Everything we're going to now is web-based. That's one of the reasons why we chose Rekor, as it was super easy to log in and use. You show the officers how to log in and where to click around and they immediately get it.” - Capt. Tyler Chandler

Results

MJPD saw immediate and drastic results from implementing Rekor Scout as the driving technology behind their Guardian Shield Program. Because while crime was up across the Nashville region, Mt. Juliet experienced a decrease – up to 48% in some areas. Additionally, with real-time alerting of vehicle detections, officers can prepare for a stop before the encounter, making potentially dangerous situations safer for them and the community.

Between April 2020 and August 2021, MJPD received and acted on the following notifications:

Primary Alert: 81 Stolen Cars; 41 Stolen Plates; 3 Stolen Trailers; and 23 Wanted Persons.

Secondary Alerts: 5 Stolen Cars; 39 Wanted Persons; 44 Drug Involvement; and 32 DL Violations.

Capt. Chandler recalled one instance when a murder suspect was passing through the community. The system alerted on the suspect's tag as being a wanted person through the National Database. The suspect had been evading Marshalls with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations and MJPD was able to apprehend the suspect due to the alert.

The department also addressed the need for residents to understand what the Guardian Shield Program is and how it operates. Law enforcement holds ongoing meetings to educate and inform residents about the program’s benefits, in addition to sharing successful alerts on their social media channels to demonstrate the true value of the program and the difference it is making. The community’s response has been tremendously positive.

“We really gained support when the community saw what it was doing for them, that we were getting TBI Most Wanted murderers out of the community that vehicle burglaries and stolen vehicles had dropped by nearly half. We've used the system to investigate a lot of crimes and take people who've committed crimes on our citizens into custody and gain restitution and justice for those victims.” - Capt. Tyler Chandler

Continued Partnership

Building upon the success of Rekor’s initial ALPR system deployment in 2020, MJPD added 11 cameras at the end of 2021 to bring the total number of Rekor-powered systems to 50. The goal was to cover gaps, capture everything, and make it a more solid form of protection.

Conclusion

MJPD has set a high standard for thoughtful ALPR program deployment, complete with frequent and transparent communications with their constituents. Rekor is proud to be in partnership with MJPD and shares in its mission to keep officers and the community safe.