Mayor Ed Murray and Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole today unveiled the Seattle Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC). The RTCC is a centralized data and logistics hub, partnering analysts and investigators with officers on the street to rapidly identify suspects and solve crimes, and disrupt emerging crime trends.
“The Seattle Police Department has taken data-driven and proactive policing to a whole new level with the Real Time Crime Center,” Mayor Ed Murray. “This high-tech hub will provide our officers with instant analysis of 911 data, trends and other critical information to help officers answer calls more efficiently and better protect our neighborhoods.”
The RTCC serves as the information center of the department’s Agile Policing strategy, which aims to streamline and enhance the department’s responsiveness in the field as crime unfolds using data-driven strategies and tactics. The RTCC incorporates information collected from 911 dispatch calls, SeaStat data, radio traffic, and vehicle information data.
“Agile Policing leverages the combined skills of career police officers and civilian crime analysts,” said Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole. “With the Real Time Crime Center at the hub, this innovative, data-driven approach will enhance police service in all Seattle neighborhoods.
Analysts in the RTCC will monitor incoming data and will communicate spikes, trends, and anomalies in reported crimes to commanders who then can deploy resources proactively as situations develop.
Under the Agile Policy strategy, the department will consolidate the Criminal Intelligence Section, the Data Driven Policing Section and Crime Analysis detectives into the new Intelligence and Analysis Section. Teams from the Intelligence and Analysis Section will staff the RTCC.
The RTCC is funded through a combination of asset forfeitures and a Department of Justice grant of $411,000. A portion of that grant will fund a team of research scientists that will continue to refine best practices to improve the RTCC and proactive public safety in Seattle.