Could high-tech New Orleans crime-fighting system work in Chicago?

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FOX 32 NEWS - A new series on FOX called "APB" focuses on the idea that crime in Chicago can be fought with technology.  In the show, a wealthy businessman takes over a police precinct.

The idea has already found some success in New Orleans, where entrepreneur Sidney Torres had gotten sick of City Hall making excuses for violence in the French Quarter.

"I mean, it was always this person's fault, or this person fault, or we don't have enough officers or we don't have the tax dollars," Torres said.

He said that 911 is outdated, so he figured out a way to fight crime with an app that has a faster response time. App users take a picture or video of a crime in progress and it goes directly to the responding officers' laptop. That way, officers know just who they are looking for. The app uses GPS to give the "French Quarter Task Force" locations. In just 90 days, his task force helped crime drop by 45 percent. Officers arrived within two to three minutes.

"Everyone has a phone," Torres said. "You take a picture from afar and it's evidence."

Torres said he's sure it would work in Chicago.

"I'd even be willing to give it to Chicago for three months at no charge to try as a pilot program because I know it could work," he said. "I see Chicago and it's horrible.  I don't even want to go there. it's like a war zone. Something thas to be done to get the city under control."

The French Quarter Task Force is staffed by off-duty uniformed New Orleans police armed with guns and radios.

"We're there within minutes, so someone who feels threatened gets the same response as a drive-by," Torres said.