Are Real-Time Crime Centers Worth It? The Truth About RTCC Impact

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

When it comes to Real-Time Crime Centers (RTCC), a lot of departments are quietly asking the same question:

Is this actually worth it?

Worth the cost.
Worth the staffing.
Worth the political capital it takes to get it approved.

Because for many agencies, the reality is not some high-tech nerve center straight out of a vendor brochure. It is a half-empty room with glowing monitors, dusty keyboards, and systems that technically work, but have never really been used when things are going sideways at 2 a.m. No clear mission. No workflows. No one truly owning it.

For those newer to the concept, a Real-Time Crime Center is supposed to be the place where all of your technology comes together (e.g. cameras, license plate readers, CAD, RMS, gunshot detection, and other data) to give officers rapid, actionable information during the initial response and in the hours and days after a crime. In theory, it helps police make better decisions faster and keeps cases from going cold.

In practice, that promise is a lot harder to deliver.

I know this because I was handed one.

Our RTCC had already been “built” by the time command staff came to me. The press had been done. The checks were written. The software was installed.

But nothing was actually happening.

One morning I was pulled aside and told, “We need to get this going. You and one other officer — make this an RTCC.”

No playbook. No rollout plan. Just two of us sitting in a room full of expensive technology trying to turn it into something that could actually help officers on the street.

And all I could think was: Oh jeez, I hope this work…

If you have an RTCC (or you are trying to decide whether to build one), that pit in your stomach probably feels familiar.

A new long-term study out of Miami finally tells us whether that feeling is justified.

The Real-Time Crime Centers Study

This evaluation was led by researchers Rob T. Guerette, Kimberly Przeszlowski, Jasmine J. Mitchell, Jose Rodriguez, Jaime Ramirez, and Alejandro Gutierrez and focused on the Miami RTCC.

Miami launched their RTCC on April 28, 2019. By 2022 they had:

• Grown from 342 to 582 cameras
• Expanded from 7 to 9 staff
• Increased coverage from 30% to 86% of weekly hours

The researchers had conducted an evaluation in 2022 and were now extending it through 2024. The original study examined 648 RTCC-assisted violent crime cases from the first three years after launch, comparing them to a randomly selected control group of violent crime cases that did not receive RTCC support. This follow-up did not add new cases; instead, it tracked the same 648 RTCC cases over a five-year and four-month period (2019–2024) to see how they progressed through arrest, clearance, and adjudication compared to the control group.

They asked three questions:

1. Do RTCC cases clear at higher rates over time?
2. Do RTCC cases lead to more convictions?
3. Do RTCC cases result in more co-offenders being arrested?

What They Found

1. RTCCs Really Do Help Clear Cases

RTCC-assisted violent crime cases were cleared by arrest 37% of the time, compared to 31% for similar non-RTCC cases.

After controlling for factors like victim characteristics, available evidence, warrants, and officer involvement, RTCC-assisted cases had 71% higher odds of being cleared by arrest compared to similar non-RTCC cases. In other words, even when accounting for all these other factors, the presence of RTCC support alone made a case far more likely to result in an arrest. This represents an improvement from the original three-year evaluation, which found a 66% increase in clearance odds, thus showing that the RTCC’s impact grew over time as cases were fully investigated.

What this looks like in real life:

I can’t count how many times I watched a case stall until we pulled one camera angle (a car turning a corner, a hoodie logo, a partial plate) and suddenly detectives had enough to write a warrant. It didn’t close the case that day, but it kept it alive long enough to get an arrest.

2. RTCCs Help Catch More Offenders Per Case

RTCC cases averaged 1.22 arrestees per incident, compared to 1.07 in non-RTCC cases.

That may sound small, but across thousands of cases it is huge.

What this looks like in real life:

With multiple cameras and ALPR hits, you stop catching just the trigger-puller. You start finding the driver, the lookout, the person who dropped them off. I’ve seen group assaults turn from one arrest into three because video showed everyone’s role.

RTCCs don’t just help you catch someone. They help you catch everyone.

3. RTCCs Do Not Increase Convictions

Surprisingly, RTCC assistance did not improve the odds of conviction.

Miami RTCC cases did show slightly more convictions (25% vs. 20%), but once all other factors were accounted for, the difference was not statistically significant. Meaning the difference could have happened by chance and isn’t strong enough to conclude that RTCC support actually increased convictions.

Why this makes sense:

By the time your case hits court, the RTCC is out of the picture. Prosecutors are dealing with plea bargaining, caseloads, victim cooperation, criminal history, COVID backlogs, and a dozen other factors that have nothing to do with how good your video is.

Even when you hand them a beautifully packaged case, courts may not yet be fully equipped to interpret or rely on the technology-driven evidence. A case can still stall or fall apart despite all the RTCC support.

So… How Do You Build a RTCC That Actually Works?

The essential takeaway from the Miami study is clear: RTCCs can have an impact.

At its core, an RTCC can start with just one trained analyst or officer with a laptop monitoring cameras. But departments often layer in other tools that expand its capabilities:

• City, business, and school camera access
• CAD/RMS integration to see calls and reports in real time
• ALPR (automatic license plate recognition)
• Gunshot detection systems
• Facial recognition and video analytics
• A way to search, compile, and share video fast
• Drones
• Intelligence Software

All of these are nice-to-haves, but the essential impact comes from the people using the technology, not the technology itself.

Staffing and Resources to Consider

• Minimum: one analyst or officer with investigative instincts
• Ideal: a small team covering peak hours
• Technology access: cameras, CAD/RMS, ALPR, search and sharing capabilities
• Coverage planning: identify peak hours, patrol support needs, and workflow integration
• Workflow development: create clear protocols for how RTCC staff interact with officers on the street

To help departments navigate these decisions, I helped develop this framework:

Real-Time Crime Centers: Integrating Technology to Enhance Public Safety

Real-Time Crime Centers: Integrating Technology to Enhance Public Safety – Criminal Justice Technology Testing and Evaluation Center (CJTTEC)

Published April 2025

This framework wasn’t created in a vacuum. We interviewed police departments with RTCCs at various stages, officers and analysts on the ground, researchers, and vendors. From those insights, we built a guide to help departments create, expand, or optimize an RTCC, covering everything from staffing and technology to coverage and workflow integration.

Final Thoughts

In my experience, even modest RTCC setups can be effective if the right people are in the right seats, using the tools thoughtfully. The Miami findings reinforce this: RTCC assistance improved case clearance odds by over 70%, helped arrest multiple offenders per incident, and provided detectives with actionable evidence.

I’ve seen this firsthand. When I first started in my RTCC, it was just me and one other officer, a tiny team tasked with making a full RTCC work. But with the right people in the room, we turned the technology into actionable intelligence.

Over time, it became a fully staffed RTCC with expanded coverage, integrated systems, and established workflows. It became an essential tool for patrol officers, shaping how they responded to incidents and providing intelligence that truly changed outcomes. That growth and integration proved its value in ways that a wall of screens alone never could.

The lesson is clear: technology matters, but people make it work. With thoughtful staffing, proper workflows, and even modest resources, an RTCC can be a real force multiplier for any department.

At the end of the day, every case cleared and every additional offender arrested means a safer street, a protected neighbor, and a community that can trust its police are working effectively.

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Carlee Ruiz

Carlee Ruiz is the founder of PoliceResearchHub, a platform that turns academic research into practical insights for law enforcement. She brings seven years of experience as a crime analyst and justice researcher, with a focus on evidence based policing, gun violence prevention, and public safety strategy. Carlee currently works as a researcher at National Policing Institute, where she supports evaluations of law enforcement programs and criminal justice initiatives across the country. Through PoliceResearchHub, she aims to make research easier to understand and more useful for the people doing the work on the ground.