Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that the Patrol Finder app can only be accessed by the police department, and not residents.
After experiencing a string of break-ins over the past year, West University Place police department officials announced Feb. 18 that they plan to add more virtual cameras within city limits and launch an internal app that tracks police activity.
The action taken
The app is called Patrol Finder and allows the department to track where officers are patrolling and whether they have been on a street.
“I want every street covered at least four times within 24 hours,” West U Police Chief Gary Ratliff said at the Feb. 18 public safety meeting. “So you should see a patrol car in front of your home at some point in time just for the sake of covering the community.”
Ratliff said the cameras that will be added are part of the existing virtual gate cameras, which are cameras that provide complete coverage of 24/7 footage of West U’s perimeter. The new cameras will be placed inside the perimeter, he said. These cameras will also have license plate readers.
“By adding, strategically, some internal cameras in some of the specific places that we feel are beneficial to us, we feel like it will help us as far as the internal traffic in the city,” Ratliff said.
How we got here
Since January 2025, seven home burglaries have taken place in West U. Many of the burglaries had similar characteristics, Ratliff said.
Common patterns include:
- Burglaries occurring between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
- Suspects targeted the rear of the home
- Went through the second-floor window
- Used ladders to gain access to the second floor
- Pillowcases and backpacks were used to conceal items
Ratliff also offered advice to residents to help prevent burglaries from taking place.
“Don’t make it easy for them,” Ratliff said. “Don’t put a source where they can enter your home.”
Something to note
The city of West University currently has four mobile cameras as part of the system, so there will be no additional costs, a spokesperson for the city said. They added that one camera is currently deployed and others will soon be deployed, but no official date has been announced.
This has been updated to clarify that Patrol Finder is an internal app for the department, not the public.
