When a woman told Anne Arundel County Police that a man driving a black Ford Bronco pointed a handgun at her in an apparent episode of road rage Monday morning in Glen Burnie, an officer assigned to a new intelligence unit helped solve the case from his computer.

The corporal works in an office at the police department’s Criminal Investigation Division in Millersville outfitted with three banks of computers equipped with three screens each. One screen regularly shows a feed of police calls. Another displays a map plotting out available camera locations throughout the county. The third can be used to tune in live when something happens.

As officers in Glen Burnie searched for the Bronco, the corporal combed nearby license plate readers and live cameras for a vehicle matching the description, court documents show. The corporal got a hit on a license plate, relaying the information to responding officers. Eventually, the officers found a Black Bronco outside a house in Brooklyn Park.

Police arrested an Annapolis-area man there after the woman identified him as the driver who pointed a gun at her, according to documents charging him with assault and reckless endangerment.

County officials are lauding the work of the intelligence unit, called the Real Time Information Center, as a vital tool that will help police respond to crime faster while keeping officers and the public safer.

In statements ahead of a news conference this month at the $1.5 million facility, County Executive Steuart Pittman, a Democrat, called the unit a “game-changer in public safety” while Police Chief Amal Awad said it represented “21st-century innovative, smart policing at its finest.”

Officials say they are respecting the public’s privacy and civil liberties.

“We’re not in here looking at CCTV all day,” said Lt. Brian Carney, the nearly 20-year police department veteran leading the intelligence unit. “Everything we do is incident-based.”

Carney said his team only uses the technology when there are police calls, criminal investigations, public safety threats — “like someone threatening to shoot up a business” — and training.

His officers and “public safety analysts” use traffic cameras, cameras at government facilities and cameras at businesses that give police access. As of Thursday, the agency had access to 1,278 such live cameras.

In the event of an active shooter, for example, if intelligence unit members can get live access to a camera, Carney said, they might be able to identify the assailant before officers arrive, speeding up their ability to get inside and potentially save lives.

Residents can register their home security cameras with the department. Police say they can’t watch such video live. Instead, they have a map of registered cameras and can request footage from residents if something happens nearby. Some 146 people had registered cameras with the department as of Thursday.

One of the first things detectives investigating a crime do is search for cameras nearby. With the intelligence unit, officers will now know in real time whether there’s a camera around.

“It’s a huge time-saver,” Carney said.

But Carl Snowden, convener of the Caucus of African American Leaders of Anne Arundel County, said he was concerned about the potential for government overreach. He pointed to the case of former County Executive John Leopold, who was convicted in 2013 of misconduct in office for using the police department to investigate and surveil political opponents.

“Anne Arundel County never, even after that controversy, ever passed any legislation that would prohibit that ongoing conduct,” said Snowden, adding that the technology could exacerbate racial profiling. “If there’s not the proper oversight to it, it easily could be abused.”

Elizabeth Palan, district public defender for Anne Arundel County, said in a statement that the police department did not discuss its new program with her office and that its public statements did “not allay any of the privacy concerns that come from increased surveillance, particularly with the use of home security cameras.”

“Once individuals provide information about the cameras in and around their house, there is nothing to stop the police from getting a search warrant, mandating access even of video footage that is not voluntarily provided and infringing upon the privacy of the homeowner, residents, and everyone captured on film,” Palan said.

Carney said his team has exonerated people in real time. He recalled a call for an armed person in a public park, saying his unit was able to distinguish the weapon in question as a toy and tell officers before they arrived, changing their approach to the situation.

“This is not like surveillance. We only do calls for service,” public safety analyst Faith Woodward said.

Woodward joined the department in December after 11 years working at the Jennifer Road Detention Center in Annapolis. The department sought people with public safety backgrounds who were comfortable working with radios to serve as analysts.

In just a few months, Woodward said, she’s become infatuated with the work: “The adrenaline rush. Protecting the community. Trying to catch the bad guys.”

Units like Anne Arundel’s with practices such as residents registering their cameras with police “are becoming increasingly common, but I don’t believe we’ve hit the tipping point yet,” said Ashley Heiberger, a retired police captain who now works as a police practices adviser and expert witness.

The police departments in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Austin, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; New York City; Newark; New Jersey; St. Louis, Missouri; and Fresno, California, have “Real Time Crime Centers” similar to Anne Arundel’s, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance.

In Maryland, Baltimore County has one. According to Carney, Montgomery and Prince George’s County are also considering such programs.

While privacy advocates have expressed similar concerns elsewhere, no specific problems appear to have arisen in those places yet.

“If they’re voluntarily providing the video to the police, I don’t see a privacy concern,” Heiberger said. “What you let the government do is much different than what the government simply does to you.”

In August, officers rushed to a 7-Eleven in Glen Burnie for reports of a car theft and assault, according to court documents. A man told police he left his pickup truck running and unlocked, with a loaded handgun in the center console, while he went inside to buy a couple of things. He said he saw a man get into his pickup and back away.

Footage the intelligence unit gathered showed the man chasing after the thief, jumping onto and clinging to the tailgate as the truck sped away. He eventually fell. Charging documents say he was hospitalized.

The unit tracked the thief and an accomplice in real time as they crashed into two cars, ditched the truck, went into a restaurant and changed clothes. Intelligence unit members tipped off the county’s aviation unit, which spotted the suspects getting on the Light Rail. Officers arrested them on a train.

“If we didn’t have this access,” Carney said, “we probably would’ve never identified these folks.”