Tulsa Police Department unveils sophisticated crime-fighting command center

By John Dobberstein, Editor

The Tulsa Police Department held a grand opening Wednesday for a new command center aimed at helping the city fight crime with sophisticated technologies.

The city and TPD cut the ribbon on the Real Time Information Center (RTIC) at Tulsa City Hall, which will leverage data-driven insights and modern communication systems to improve how the department operates and collaborates with other city departments.

RTIC serves as a central hub for monitoring and analyzing data from various sources, including surveillance cameras, emergency calls, social media and other sensors.

This provides law enforcement and city officials with real-time situational awareness to proactively address emerging issues and prevent crime, the department said.

RTIC is also designed to upgrade emergency response by facilitating information sharing between different city departments, including police, fire and transportation authorities, for example.

“By breaking down silos and fostering collaboration, RTIC enables faster and more effective responses to emergencies and critical incidents,” the department said.

RTIC is also expected to play a pivotal role in strengthening the relationship between TPD and the community, the department says. RTIC uses numerous multimedia platforms to disseminate vital information, engage with residents and provide real-time updates with active incidents.

RTIC has partnered with Flock Safety to provide a license plate reader transparency portal for public access, which can be found at https://transparency.flocksafety.com/tulsa-ok-pd. This department believes this approach will “foster trust, improve communication and promote community involvement in public safety initiatives.”

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Other technologies available to RTIC include public safety, facility, traffic and private sector cameras, automated vehicle location, body-worn cameras, in-car dash cameras, criminal justice information databases, record search engines, a digital evidence management system, computer-aided dispatch monitor, open-source media search engines, a police record management system and 2-way voice radio communications.

Police have already seen some successes with the command center. Recently, an RTIC specialist located a missing person before any first responders could be dispatched.

Police said this proactive real-time response “provided quick comfort to the family and made efficient use of first responders making them available for other emergency calls.”