Miami, Florida
Project Overview
The Miami Police Department (MPD) developed a Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) in response to the rise in violent crimes taking place in the city. The RTCC developed was a centralized platform within MPD that allowed the agency to capture and deploy a plethora of information to officers, detectives, and Neighborhood Enhancement Team (NET) commanders in real time to improve responses to violent crime offenses. MPD partnered with Florida International University (FIU) to evaluate metrics associated with effectiveness of the new system.
Methods and Findings
Research Design
To understand the impact that Miami’s Real Time Crime Center (MRTCC) had on police practices, researchers utilized a mixed-methods study design consisting of three parts. First, researchers utilized a qualitative survey distributed to the frequent users of the MRTCC technologies to understand the role that they played in various MPD assignments and gauge officer perceptions of its benefits. Next, researchers designed a network analysis of violent crime case components to visualize and determine how MRTCC technologies have become integrated into case processing within the Miami Police Department. This allowed for researchers to evaluate how MPD utilizes and integrates MRTCC products within their case processing. Lastly, a quasi-experiment with relevant controls was conducted to understand the impact of MRTCC technologies on clearance rates and the time it takes for the agency to clear a case.
Findings
- Users of the MRTCC technologies had a positive perception of the technology and found them to be easily accessible and useful to their daily work.
- Most respondents believed that MRTCC technologies had improved the identification and documentation of evidence, improved the ability to clear cases, and reduced the time to clear cases.
- Users conveyed that the MRTCC platform could be improved by expanding the technologies, particularly CCTV, to cover more operational areas 24 hours a day, and by allowing direct use of some technologies by detectives and commanders.
- The use of MRTCC technologies has become fully integrated into the processing of cases.
- Use of MRTCC technologies has significantly improved the ability to clear violent crime cases but has not shortened the amount of time to clear cases.
