Real Time Crime Centers (RTCCs) are locations or centers for police surveillance, data-gathering, analysis, and communications. Law enforcement agencies design RTCCs to be surveillance and reporting hubs into which curated data is live-streamed and constantly relayed for police assessment and response.
Another central feature of RTCCs is that they provide the infrastructure through which police can gather more “evidence” more quickly. For instance, once a person that police have deemed to be suspicious or labeled a “suspect” has been identified, police can use the various tentacles of the RTCC and its surveillance streams to gather and store what they consider to be key pieces of data on the “suspect,” to be saved electronically and used in prosecution, including vehicle license plate scans (Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs)), local Closed-circuit television (CCTV) video, Ring Technology doorbell video from a person’s home or their neighborhood, a person’s social media updates (Social media surveillance), and more.
While this type of “evidence” gathering by police from multiple sources of surveillance is not new (at least not in the last few decades), it is made faster and more “efficient”–meaning it incarcerates more people that police intend to be incarcerated, in less time, and for longer periods of time–by the updated, more integrated, and more invasive RTCCs.
Most recent versions of RTCCs include the following components:
In addition to the above, data streams and/or databases connected to RTCCs include the following:
Image description: A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) Deputy sits in front of a desk and wall full of monitors at LASD’s first Real-Time Watch Center in the Lost Hills station in Agoura Hills. Image source: officer.com