At the end of 2016, two random acts of violence shocked New Orleans and spurred a $40 million investment in public safety infrastructure and improvements, leading to the creation of the New Orleans Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC) – a 24/7 surveillance monitoring center under the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Now, barely a year past its first shift in November 2017, the RTCC has helped police conserve more than 2,000 man-hours and improve crime clearance rates across the city.
Like many police departments across the U.S., the NOPD was struggling to attract and retain officers, so there was a real need for an artificial force multiplier, says Ross Bourgeois, RTCC Administrator. Therefore, the RTCC was built to increase efficiency, not to directly detect and solve crimes, and since the RTCC is run by a civilian staff, that meant the technology used needed to be user-friendly, intuitive and automated.