San Benito commission backs plan to pursue interlocal for real-time crime center; several routine approvals also pass

San Benito — The City Commission on Jan. 21 authorized the city manager to pursue details of an interlocal cooperative agreement with local school districts and other partners to explore a real-time crime center, and directed staff to return with the proposed agreement for formal action.

City Manager Sandoval introduced the idea and presented it as a way to “create a platform and a controlled scenario” to unify the city’s existing cameras, access-control and alarm systems with school safety measures. Mike Garcia, a presenter with HID and member of the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools, gave the commission a detailed presentation on how a real-time crime center could integrate access control, video and alarm systems and support coordinated emergency response.

Garcia said the effort is meant to be incremental: “Think Legos. Your real time crime center, which is run by the city, will be your Lego platform. Everything that the school buys, that you buy, that you purchase for safety and security will…