When a man was killed and a child injured during a shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, law enforcement officers identified a person of interest within five minutes. That's not the result of pure luck but the capabilities of a Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC). It was Birmingham RTCC’s first day of operation.

Technology is a proven tool for providing objective, data-driven evidence and improving investigative leads related to violent crimes and property crimes. With license plate reader cameras (LPR cameras) deployed around a community, law enforcement can rely on real-time data to respond to situations and keep communities safe.

With an RTCC, current and evolving technologies are centralized into a single hub. This maximizes law enforcement's ability to respond quickly and effectively, as they did in Birmingham.

Other advantages include the ability to identify suspects with accuracy and precision. Tools like LPR cameras can draw an actionable link between an individual and a crime. An RTCC can drastically improve situational awareness to respond more appropriately and achieve better outcomes for victims, bystanders, and communities. RTCCs can also act as a force multiplier by allowing departments to monitor several locations without deploying several officers, as well as monitoring situations involving large crowds and high-crime areas. 

Birmingham's RTCC exemplifies the power of law enforcement technology and intelligence-led policing, but the cost of an RTCC limits smaller communities that lack the funds of a large city. Birmingham's RTCC cost $3 million. Some RTCCs, like the one in New York City, cost as much as $11 million. Some centers rely on wealthy individual donors on top of city funding and state and federal grants.

With Flock Safety's modern approach to layered intelligence platform, however, policing doesn't need to cost more than a community can afford. Smaller agencies and cities can use Flock Safety’s software platform to reap similar benefits as an RTCC without the cost.

Reason 1: With the latest technologies, staffing costs are minimal. 

Departments staff their RTCCs in many ways. Some departments create entire field teams dedicated to using technology in police responses. These crime analysts man the RTCC as an incident unfolds. Other departments may train existing personnel to run the RTCC. Departments may staff the RTCC 24/7 or only during seasons of high crime. Other departments may only use the RTCC during a live incident and without any dedicated staff. In any event, the department covers the cost of staffing the RTCC, even when it isn’t actively being used.

Flock Safety’s software platform lets departments take full advantage of the real-time intelligence an RTCC provides without the need to scale up staffing costs. This will benefit smaller agencies where resources may already be limited. The platform gives officers and first responders better awareness so that dispatchers can deploy resources more efficiently.  The Flock Safety platform is also easy to learn and use, which means that departments don't have to spend more money hiring and training technical staff. Departments can leverage existing personnel. This ease of use also makes it possible for departments to hire non-officer employees to monitor real-time intelligence in the cloud.

When used in conjunction with an LPR camera system and Vehicle Fingerprint ™ technology, departments can pinpoint a suspect's vehicle in greater detail. This circumvents the need for roadblocks where officers follow vague leads like "white pickup truck."

Many agencies use Automatic Vehicle Location GPS in patrol vehicles, and they manage unit location and status on a separate platform. Flock Safety pulls this data into a live view map, so RTCC operators can get a total view of available units.

Flock Safety’s automated technologies reduce the need for labor to operate an RTCC, making it even more feasible to keep staffing costs low.

Reason 2: You don’t have to spend thousands on new hardware.

A traditional RTCC is hardware-intensive, requiring cameras, monitors, telecom equipment, servers, and more. Traditional RTCC systems tend to be proprietary and incompatible with other systems, hindering the value of their existing tools. To top it off, the integration of the RTCC system with the department’s existing processes will require a huge investment in IT support.

But what if you could connect all of your existing tools into a single system without buying any additional hardware? Flock Safety’s platform does just that. 

• Flock’s real-time intelligence software platform is cloud-based, so you won’t need to maintain servers and other IT infrastructure expansions.
• Flock’s SaaS model allows Flock to keep the system updated and troubleshoot issues with RTCC staff.
• Flock’s real-time intelligence platform isn’t a closed-loop system, which makes it easy for departments to plug traffic cameras, LPR cameras, gunshot detectors, and other security resources into one hub—even if those tools were built to work in older, closed-loop systems.

Flock Safety’s modern approach to real-time intelligence can leverage cameras of businesses that collaborate with law enforcement. A business’s camera system can be integrated into the centralized hub of Flock Safety’s cloud-based platform through the video management system (VMS) feature even if the business uses a different platform. Then, like an RTCC, Flock Safety can push alerts directly to law enforcement, which can be a cost-saver for businesses that pay a third party to monitor security. 

Camera footage of organized retail crime provides one of the most effective pieces of evidence for prosecutors. The faster an officer can gain access to footage, the faster a crime can be solved. With a modern, cloud-based approach to the RTCC, responding officers don’t need to wait until an investigation is underway to access camera footage. Officers with camera access can watch the same camera feed as employees while the incident is in progress and can even arrive before the suspect has left the building. Officers will spend less time looking for leads and more time solving cases. 

Flock’s impact on the  RTCC is a game-changer for crime prevention with none of the hardware costs. 

Reason 3: Modern RTCCs don’t come with heavy infrastructure costs.

When a department sets up a traditional RTCC system, there are multiple technologies deployed as part of that system, such as traffic cameras, wifi, electricity, and other public utilities. This requires considerable coordination with city planners and contractors and increases labor and maintenance costs. 

Modern systems function more independently. Flock Safety LPR cameras, for instance, are wireless, solar-powered, and run on their own network without the need for electricity or wifi. Flock Safety LPR cameras can be installed anywhere without the need for additional infrastructure. A single subscription price includes software, data, maintenance, and access to 1B+ plate reads a month. This makes Flock Safety the most affordable way for law enforcement agencies to consolidate evidence and intelligence from live video (PTZ, drone, and IP cameras) sensors (LPR, gunshot detection), data feeds (traffic, AVL, CAD), and simplify the distribution real-time insights in a way that enhances situational awareness, investigative capabilities, resource allocation.

Conclusion

As of 2020, the vast majority of the estimated 80 RTCCs in the United States are in metropolitan areas where large police department budgets can accommodate the cost. 

Flock Safety believes that every city deserves the ability to minimize crime and maximize safety to the fullest extent possible. Flock Safety’s modern approach to a cloud-based intelligence platform democratizes access to situational awareness and incident management that  RTCCs provide for smaller agencies and cities by alleviating the high costs. Flock Safety gives law enforcement in any community access to real-time alerts and sophisticated data in a simplified, meaningful way so first responders can act with confidence and drive better outcomes.

The entire community benefits when law enforcement arrives on the scene as fast as possible and with enhanced contextual awareness.

Flock Safety is a public safety operating system that helps communities and law enforcement in 5000+ cities work together to eliminate crime, protect privacy, and mitigate bias. We build devices that capture objective evidence and use machine learning to create and deliver unbiased investigative leads to law enforcement.  Flock Safety serves 5000 cities in 45+ states and is helping solve hundreds of crimes every day.