An Impact Evaluation of the Capital Region Real Time Crime Center

• In Event: Smart Policing Initiative: Promising Practices in Police Technology

Abstract

Real time crime centers (RTCCs) are designed to centralize law enforcement technologies with the purpose of assisting the investigation of crime incidents in real time. This coordination of resources is expected to help solve cases in minutes or hours, rather than days or weeks. Though RTCCs have proliferated across the United States over the past several years, very little research has evaluated their effectiveness. The Capital Region RTCC (CRRTCC) in Tallahassee, FL is a collaborative effort between three local law enforcement agencies, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University. One of the stated goals of the CRRTCC is to support research on the implementation and impact of the RTCC and its component technologies. Drawing on incident-level data collected from the participating agencies for 2021-2023, we examine whether the implementation of the CRRTCC had a significant impact on multiple outcomes, including total, violent, and property crime rates, stolen vehicle recovery rates, and the probability of solving cases on patrol. The results provide much-needed evidence on the impact of an RTCC on public safety and law enforcement, and our discussion of the findings details some of the challenges associated with evaluating RTCCs.

Authors

• Brian Stults, Florida State University

• Julie Brancale, Florida State University

• Alex Billmeier, Florida State University

• Jonathan Caswell, Florida State University

• Young-An Kim, Florida State University

• Thomas Blomberg, Florida State University