Standing up your RTCC: An accessible guide for all agencies
Brenna Swanston
October 2, 2025
KEY IDEAS:
- Our RTCC guide emphasizes pragmatism and highlights real agencies doing real work — while overcoming real challenges.
- We encourage a practical approach: Start small, prove success, and scale later after securing additional resources.
- The guide focuses on culture and trust — both within your agency and with your community — because the conversation doesn’t start and end with tech.
Amid resource constraints and recruiting challenges, law enforcement agencies of all sizes are facing mounting pressure to do more with less. Real-time crime centers (RTCCs) are emerging as force multipliers in the public safety space, helping agencies reduce workloads for overburdened personnel while enhancing situational awareness to improve officer safety, investigative workflows, and case clearance rates.
While RTCCs can boost efficiency in the long term, the upfront investment may seem unfeasible for many small and midsize agencies. But real-time crime fighting isn’t just for the largest, most resourced departments. Any agency can leverage its existing resources to launch a scrappy crime center — and once you gain momentum, building gets easier.
Don’t wait for what you think you need. Get started with what you have. Our newest guide, How To Build an RTCC: A Guide for Agencies of All Sizes, provides a practical, scalable roadmap to standing up a functional RTCC with limited resources. Keep reading for an inside look at the guide.
Why are real-time crime centers on the rise?
The average law enforcement agency operates at a staffing deficit of nearly 10%, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Recruiting remains a challenge for departments trying to close that gap — especially small and midsize agencies. Prolonged staffing shortages can ultimately result in reduced services, interagency collaboration, and community engagement.
An effective RTCC can supplement sworn staff and field personnel to alleviate workloads, streamline investigations, improve case clearance rates, and make communities safer overall. As a result, RTCCs are becoming more popular. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reported 230 RTCCs in the U.S. as of September 2025 — nearly 100 more than it reported just two years prior.
💡 HOW MANY RTCCS ARE THERE? As of September 2025, the EFF reported 230 RTCCs in the United States, up significantly from 135 in August 2023.
The strategic value of an RTCC for public safety leaders
RTCC operators act as virtual partners to field and patrol officers, improving situational awareness and enhancing officer safety without requiring additional boots on the ground. And because crime center staff may comprise civilians, sworn personnel, or a combination of the two, agencies can stand up their RTCCs without having to divert existing sworn staff from critical patrol and field operations.
Your agency doesn’t need a multi-million-dollar technology center and an around-the-clock RTCC team to start building an effective crime center. All it needs is the means to:
- Process and analyze data collected by live inputs, such as surveillance cameras and license plate recognition sensors
- Communicate that information to field personnel in real time
If your agency can tick those boxes to get the ball rolling on an RTCC, you can then measure success and use that data to argue for additional resources to keep growing in the future.
READ MORE → Real-Time Policing: 4 Tips for a Sustainable Digital Transition
Glendale Police Department: The evolution of a crime center
The Glendale Police Department initially founded its real-time intelligence center (RTIC) when the agency was short-staffed and needed force-multiplying technology to supplement personnel. Now, the agency is fully staffed, and the role of its RTIC has evolved to driving down officer response times and proactively addressing emerging crime trends.
Learn more about Glendale’s RTIC and the technology that keeps it running:
ALTERNATIVE RTCC NAMES:
- RTIC → real-time information center, real-time intelligence center
- RTOC → real-time operations center
- RTAC → real-time awareness center
Inside the guide: A roadmap to building your RTCC
Our RTCC guide leverages reliable research and first-hand perspectives from law enforcement leaders to help agencies create realistic plans for launching effective, scalable crime centers. Here’s what the guide covers:
| Focus area | Considerations explored | Why this matters |
|---|---|---|
| Mission alignment | • Defining the role of your agency’s RTCC • Aligning your RTCC’s role with your agency’s mission • Assessing different levels of RTCC maturity | • Helps garner internal support for a crime center • Avoids misalignment and miscommunications • Creates realistic expectations based on resource availability |
| Internal operations | • RTCC staffing models • Standard operating procedures for a crime center • Policies and processes for data governance and security | • Ensures effective, efficient crime center staffing • Turns mission and strategy into actionable workflows • Sets the stage for secure, effective data management and sharing |
| Tech stack unification | • Designing an effective information workflow • Building a common operating picture • Making the most of the tech resources you already have | • Determines the most effective flow of data from the RTCC to field personnel • Enables integrated efforts between disparate divisions, departments, and agencies • Helps design a realistic tech stack that advances your mission |
| Cultural integration | • Internal resistance to building an RTCC • Training RTCC staff Internal adoption of RTCC technology and workflows | • Anticipates and addresses internal challenges to change •Mitigates potential resistance and cultivates trust among personnel • Encourages a culture of continuous innovation |
| Thoughtful design | • Choosing and designing the physical space for an RTCC • What to do if you don’t have space to spare | • Informs plans for locating or building your crime center • Provides alternative options for agencies lacking physical space |
| Community trust | • Protecting privacy and civil liberties • Public-facing transparency Community engagement | • Emphasizes the importance of individual privacy protection • Fosters community understanding, trust, and engagement |
| Proof of impact | • How to measure RTCC success • Securing additional support and funding | • Helps determine success metrics • Transforms your RTCC from experimental to mission-critical |
READ MORE → How RTCCs Support Interagency Collaboration
