Police use cameras to keep an eye on Gasparilla crowds

TAMPA - The city of Tampa will soon be under siege, with Gasparilla pirate celebrations filling the streets.

That means a lot of people to keep an eye on, to make sure everything stays safe.

FOX 13 got a behind-the-scenes look at the "police command center" where all of that intelligence comes in.

CLICK HERE>>>> Gasparilla 2024: Everything you need to know about the annual pirate festival

Inside TPD headquarters, officers will be plugged in, watching Gasparilla crowds from a different angle -- to assist officers responding to any calls for help.

"The whole day stays pretty active for us," said Corporal Erica Collum with the Tampa Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center,

While thousands of pirates capture the city of Tampa on Saturday, police cameras will capture all the activity, streaming those images to the real-time crime center where officers will watch it live.

"Last year we were able to use different databases, children that were lost or missing. We were able to push out photos of the kids to officers that were working so that we could find those kids and get them back to their parents a lot faster and make sure that they're safe," said Collum. 

This week, we’ve shown you how Tampa police plan to protect Gasparilla crowds by land, air and sea.

But officers certainly can’t be everywhere, which is why they utilize this technology.

"Sometimes we do get more of a bird's eye view. But it helps because we are not distracted by some of the things that officers in the field may have to deal with," said Collum.

Collum said by viewing the crowds from multiple angles, they can relay the best information to officers on the streets, answering calls for help.

"Sometimes they, you know, are looking for something specific and or driving a vehicle or different types of things. So we're able to focus solely on getting that high quality information that they need that's going to help them, find what they need to find as fast as possible and keep everybody safe," said Collum.

TPD said for large scale events they will add temporary camera installations to specific areas of concern, but they wouldn't say how many cameras they have watching this weekend.