A real-time crime center (RTCC) is a centralized technology utilized by law enforcement and emergency first responders. During early adoption, the primary purpose of RTCC was to give field officers and detectives instant information to help identify patterns and stop emerging crime. With emerging cloud-based technology, real-time crime centers in the cloud have evolved to afford enhanced visibility, unified awareness, and the appropriate level of response in emergency resource deployment. Technological advances in RTCC seeks to continually improve emergency response times in the form of instant-live video, live feed camera docking, virtual incident location mapping and full integration with

computer-aided dispatch Computer-aided dispatch (CAD), also called computer-assisted dispatch, is a method of dispatching taxicabs, couriers, field service technicians, mass transit vehicles or emergency services assisted by computer. It can either be used to send messag ...

(CAD). Police departments that have real-time crime centers, include the

New York Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

Miami-Dade Police Department The Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), formerly known as the Metro-Dade Police Department (1981–1997), Dade County Public Safety Department (1957–1981), and the Dade County Sheriff's Office (1836–1957), is a county police department se ...

Seattle Police Department The Seattle Police Department (SPD) is the principal law enforcement agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, United States, except for the campus of the University of Washington, which is under the responsibility of its own police departme ...

Fort Worth Police Department The Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) is the police department of Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Neil Noakes is the Chief of Police. FWPD is responsible for traffic and general law enforcement within the city limits of Fort Worth. Specialt ...

Metropolitan Police Department, City of St. Louis The Metropolitan Police Department of the City of St. Louis (also known as the SLMPD or Metro) is the primary law enforcement agency for the U.S. city of St. Louis. According to the Mapping Police Violence dataset, SLMPD has the highest polic ...

Albuquerque Police Department The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is the largest police force in the state, with approximately 1,000 sworn officers in 2022. In addition to serving as the primary p ...

Austin Police Department Austin Police Department (APD) is the principal law enforcement agency serving Austin, Texas. As of Fiscal Year 2022, the agency had an annual budget of $443.1 million and employed around 2,484 personnel, including approximately 1,809 officers. T ...

Tampa Police Department The Tampa Police Department (TPD) is the primary law enforcement agency for the city of Tampa, Florida. The Tampa Police Department has over 1,000 authorized sworn law enforcement personnel positions and more than 350 civilian and support staff ...

, Fresno Police Department,

Minneapolis Police Department The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is also the largest police department in Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second-oldest police department in Minnesot ...

and

Houston Police Department The Houston Police Department (HPD) is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of Houston, Texas, United States and some surrounding areas. With approximately 5,300 officers and 1,200 civilian support personnel it is the fifth-largest ...

Early adoption

The NYPD RTCC opened on July 18, 2005, and provides support 24/7. The center was built at a cost of $11 million. The information in the center is available to the 37,000 police officers of the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest i ...

. The RTCC was funded in part by grants from the non-profit

New York City Police Foundation The New York City Police Foundation was established in 1971 by business and civic leaders as a nonprofit tax-exempt charity that could raise money to spend on projects supporting NYPD reform and modernization efforts as well as helping improve its ...

. RTCC data sources include a data warehouse in which billions of records are made available to detectives and other officers within minutes, instead of days or weeks. These include: *More than 5 million New York State criminal records, parole and probation files, *More than 20 million New York City criminal complaints, arrests, 911/311 calls and summonses spanning five years, *More than 31 million national crime records, *More than 33 billion public records. The crime center employs satellite imaging and mapping of New York City (using

geographic information system A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. In a ...

software) precinct-by-precinct. The link analysis capacity of the RTCC can track suspects to their known addresses and point detectives to the locations where they are most likely to flee. The Real Time Crime Center was built with the oversight of provider

Dimension Data Dimension Data is a company specialising in information technology services. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company maintains operations on every inhabited continent. Dimension Data focuses on services including IT consulting, technic ...

Emerging cloud-based technology and innovation

Real-time crime centers (RTCC) in the cloud are centralized technology platforms which extracts and unifies live video and data feeds from virtually any source, creating a central hub that enhances the situational awareness and investigative capabilities of law enforcement and public safety agencies.

References

External links

New York City Police Foundation official site
{{New York City Police Department New York City Police Department