CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — University of Illinois Police have their hands on new technology, and they say it played a critical role in identifying and arresting a suspect they believe could be connected to a crime.

There have been three separate sexual assaults both on and near campus over the last few weeks. One of them happened on March 1st.

Officials are optimizing the way they look at data through a new software system. It helped them come up with a vehicle description.

Then, last Thursday, campus police officers spotted the car and arrested Pedro Nolasco-Martin.

New methods of data collection are helping U of I police with investigations. It’s the Division of Public Safety’s Real-Time Information Center.

“We used to take a bunch of separate technologies and bring them all into a single pane of glass,” said UIPD Lieutenant Robert Benoit.

Benoit said it streamlines the process of gathering information provided by multiple campus resources like license plate readers and campus surveillance, which is funneled through one unified system.

“If you’re looking at numerous different areas where you have to go to, it’s very time-consuming and sometimes it’s tedious to get to,” Benoit said. “So this brings a lot of them onto the same screen where you don’t have to go to all those separate sources to draw the same technology.”

It’s already helped authorities arrest Pedro Nolasco-Martin in connection to the March 1st sexual assault off campus by providing information about his vehicle. He is accused of sexually assaulting a woman at an off-campus apartment after following her into the building.

“In this case, it was a lot of follow-up that was done by those folks that helped produce that information,” Benoit said. “But where we’re moving towards in the future is to be able to do a lot of this in real time based on information that’s coming out associated with calls for service.”

The Real-Time Information Center is just getting off the ground, and Benoit said it’s something they’ll use to make campus and the community safer.

“We want to build this out, and we want to make it something that we can use to assist the community and be a resource for other departments as well,” Benoit said.

Police say the case is still under investigation. The Champaign County State’s Attorney has charged Nolasco-Martin with one count of criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual assault, and burglary. A U of I spokesperson also confirmed to WCIA that he is not a student at the university.