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Wethersfield rolls out public police dashboard and begins warning phase for new traffic cameras
Summary
At the June 15 council meeting Wethersfield police unveiled a public Power BI dashboard of real‑time enforcement data and described an early warning period for four new red‑light/speed cameras that produced large volumes of warnings during initial tests.
WETHERSFIELD — The town’s police department on Monday announced a new public Power BI dashboard and described the early, vendor‑supervised warning phase for four newly installed red‑light and speed cameras.
Lieutenant Baish, who walked the council through the dashboard, said residents can now view near‑real‑time maps and breakdowns of traffic stops, motor‑vehicle accidents and certain crime categories on the town website. He told the council that for March and April the dashboard showed 1,342 traffic stops and a major‑crimes tab listing 23 incidents that included eight commercial burglaries, seven stolen motor vehicles, four narcotics complaints, three sexual assaults and one robbery. Town ordinance and parking complaints were visible on a separate dashboard tab, Baish said.
Chief Medina described an initial live test of the camera system that ran in a short, three‑hour window and said the vendor flagged a very high volume of potential violations during the warning period. “We’re averaging 100 to 125 an hour per camera,” Medina told the council, adding that only four cameras were running during the day’s test and that vendors and staff are calibrating systems before any mailed notices.
Lieutenant Ocheskey, who answered follow‑up technical questions, said the vendor will not begin mailing official notices until calibration and quality‑control checks are complete. “They’re looking at the violations and about 100 to 125 per location … within three hours,” he said, describing the vendor’s caution about mailing warning notices until the system is tuned.
Councilors pressed staff on two lines of public concern: whether the new camera data can be integrated with the Power BI dashboard and how ticketing thresholds are set. Officers demonstrated that the dashboard is interactive and that staff hope to overlay SiteStream camera locations once integration is completed; Officer Turski said users will be able to zoom to camera locations and accident hot spots. On thresholds, Ocheskey said the test period used a 15‑mph‑over threshold for automated enforcement and that human review and vendor calibration are intended to reduce subjectivity before any tickets are issued.
Chief Medina framed the program as safety‑driven, not revenue driven, citing the department’s goal of improving driver behavior and reducing crashes. He also emphasized that the cameras supplement rather than replace regular patrols.
Next steps: the vendor intends to continue calibration and review, the dashboard remains live for public viewing on the town website, and the town will not mail enforcement notices until the vendor confirms the system is reliably accurate.
