{"id":128425,"date":"2026-01-22T23:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T23:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128425\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T23:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T23:18:08","slug":"gasparilla-2026-inside-tampa-pds-real-time-crime-center-helping-keep-crowds-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128425\/","title":{"rendered":"Gasparilla 2026: Inside Tampa PD\u2019s Real-Time Crime Center helping keep crowds safe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Officials from more than 30 different agencies will work together in the Tampa<\/a> Police Department\u2019s Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC) to monitor crowds this Gasparilla season<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s live video from CCTV cameras or from the department\u2019s new high-tech drones, officials in the RTCC will be watching for suspicious activity, disturbances and traffic issues during both the Children\u2019s Gasparilla Parade and the Gasparilla Parade of Pirates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ: Tampa Police Department rolls out virtual reality training pods to practice de-escalation techniques<\/a><\/p>\n

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“We have different assets that we can deploy to assist officers in the field. And like I said that communication, assistance between all those different agencies is very important and getting information out in real time quickly to officers when there is something occurring, whether it’s a suspicious person or a missing child,” Tampa Police Sgt. James Valentino said of the importance of the RTCC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What you can do:<\/p>\n

All week, TPD and Tampa Fire Rescue have been encouraging parents to take a picture of their kids before the festivities start Saturday. During Tuesday\u2019s news conference, Tampa Fire Chief Barbara Tripp said lost children is one of the main calls they often get.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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MORE: Law enforcement to protect Tampa by land, air and sea as pirates pillage and plunder during Gasparilla<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks to TPD\u2019s new technology called Prepared 911, parents could share pictures of their lost children with dispatchers this Gasparilla season. Through this new system, dispatch can text a link to a caller\u2019s phone, which allows him or her to send pictures or start a live video to show what\u2019s going on around them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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READ: Tampa Police Department rolls out AI technology to help officers, dispatchers<\/a><\/p>\n

“We will be working with Prepared 911,” Valentino said Thursday. “So, if there is information coming in, we can use that as a tool to get that information out quickly and faster than in the past.”<\/p>\n

The Source: Information in this story comes from interviews with the Tampa Police Department done by FOX 13’s Ariel Plasencia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tampa<\/a>Gasparilla Pirate Invasion<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Officials from more than 30 different agencies will work together in the Tampa Police Department\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[630,47,31383,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-128425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-gasparilla","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}