by Wesley Harris
An allocation of $1.5 million by Congress to a real-time intelligence center in Ruston is expected to enhance the police department’s crime fighting capabilities, Mayor Ronny Walker told the Lincoln Parish Journal last week.
Walker said U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy has announced he successfully secured the $1.5 million in Congressionally Directed Spending in the first Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Appropriations bills advanced by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee.
The funding will go toward a technology-heavy center envisioned by Ruston Police Chief Eric Watson to prevent and investigate crime.
Watson said the RTIC (pronounced Ar-tic) will give the department new tools that have been highly successful in other cities.
“Imagine the value during a critical incident at a school or an active shooter situation if we can link into camera systems at the scene to see what our first responders are getting into before they show up there,” Watson said. “Also, if there’s a first responder already at the school, we tap into his body-worn camera and see what he’s seeing. There’s tons of different things that the center will be used for.”
“It’s not my idea,” the chief said, “but I know good ideas when I see them.”
Watson said Lafayette Parish has the only fully functioning RTIC in Louisiana.
“I went down there and toured theirs. A Lafayette Sheriff’s Office sergeant runs it with a retired deputy and a retired city police officer and a couple of civilians who work part time,” said Watson. “They are solving crimes all over the U.S. by tracking offenders who are coming through Louisiana.”
Watson said Lafayette has access to camera systems and license plate recognition (LPR) systems from Texas to Florida.
“Let’s say Florida enters in a car into their LPR system and it’s picked up by a LPR here in Louisiana. Lafayette is finding stolen cars like that,” said Watson. “They just found a kidnap victim like that. It’s fascinating stuff, not to mention the local cases they’re solving and recovering stolen property.”
The Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office said their center has access to 1,700 cameras around the parish, including a combination of traffic cameras, public surveillance cameras from multiple law enforcement agencies and private security cameras, as well as dash cameras in sheriff’s office vehicles and deputies’ body-worn cameras.
Watson said Ouachita Parish is currently building an RTIC.
The entire project to equip it like Watson wants will take about $3.5 million but the recent Congressional appropriation is a huge start. Grants and other funding sources from outside the city are being pursued, Watson said.
“We have some LPR locations around the city already.” said Watson. “I’m about to put up five more. We’re utilizing that technology now. But we’re going to build out from that.
“The RTIC [proposal] includes new computers for our vehicles, a new software program that will enable us to pull in security cameras from all over the city from those sites that give us access. We anticipate using some part-time retired people and they’re going to be solving crimes based on information they get off of those cameras and LPRs.
“We will also be able to link in to an officer’s body-worn cameras from the RTIC. The analysts can check on that officer who’s out on a call, monitor his body-worn camera. Some officers have a little bit of pushback to that initially, but it gives officers a second set of eyes to what’s going on around them. It saves lives.”
Watson said Ruston’s limited LPR system is already helping officers solve cases.
“Summer Wilson, one of our officers, worked a vehicle burglary,” Watson explained. “She came back to the office, started digging around on the LPR system, finds a car that was in that area at about 1:00 or 2:00 o’ clock in the morning. Now, we can’t pin it on him right now, but we know it was him.
“He took the suspects over there, dropped them off, came back and picked them up, and that’s when we checked him on the LPR. That kind of analysis of crimes hasn’t been performed in the past. So the Real-Time Intelligence Center is going to do nothing but amplify that by giving us the tools to apply that type of technology to every case.”
Use of a “drone as a first responder,” also known as a response drone in the industry, is part of Watson’s plan for the RTIC.
“The drone would sit on top of City Hall or the police department and would be activated from dispatch,” Watson said. “It can be anywhere in our city in 30 seconds and be transmitting from the scene while officers are responding. That feed is being watched in dispatch or in the crime center. A call of a fight and the drone is right there, letting officers know how many are involved. Or that someone is fleeing the scene. Or maybe there’s nothing to it and officers can slow down.”
Watson credited Mayor Walker’s efforts to seek funding from outside sources to support the project.
“This program relies on businesses and schools giving us access to their camera surveillance systems. If the police department gets a call like a burglary in progress or something, the intel center can link into the building’s cameras and see how many suspects are on the premises,” said Mayor Walker.
The response drone could also track down suspects who flee the scene, according to Watson’s description of the technology.
The mayor has given his full support to Watson’s plan.
“This is the next wave of what’s happening in police work and so important in my opinion in Ruston because we are a two-college town,” Walker said, citing growth of the city and the crime that comes with that.
“It helps the fire department, too, because if we get a call of a fire somewhere that has a system, the firefighters will know what’s going on before they ever get there.”
Walker credited Senator Cassidy for the financial help and for helping Ruston and Lincoln Parish continue to move forward.
“Senator Cassidy has helped us a lot over the eleven years I’ve been in office, bringing us about $35 million in grants and earmarks,” said Walker. “So this is just another example of that, and we really, really appreciate it.”
