Officers were dispatched to a call reporting a man in the parking lot of a convenience store acting erratically and waving a gun. At first glance, the call appeared to be a high-priority threat to public safety. However, the dispatcher noticed something unusual: no other witnesses had reported the same behavior, and the phone’s location data showed it was coming from a wooded area just off the side of the store, rather than the parking lot.

The Winston-Salem Police Department began using the ForceMetrics Velocity™ platform to give officers and investigators real-time access to information that would otherwise be buried in separate systems. For Sergeant Bradley Richardson and Senior Crime Analyst, Travis Swain, Velocity™ has become a vital part of daily work, supporting everything from frontline response to complex casework. The platform makes it easy to pull up call histories, search by nickname or keyword, and surface patterns across people, places, and events.

As the summer winds down and the fall season begins, law enforcement agencies across the country see a shift in crime patterns. Seasonal changes, the return of students to school, and community events all influence the types of calls and incidents that demand attention. For public safety leaders, understanding these crime trends is essential to ensuring resources are used effectively and communities remain safe.