Issue link: http://lawandordermag.epubxp.com/i/74973
Video feeds can come from Calgary's Helicopter Air Watch for Community Safety (HAWCS) to the RTOC. port the Duty Inspectors in their street command roles, but to also provide sup- port to frontline members responding to any and all incidents in real time. In the past, these officers relied on the support of Public Safety Communications (PSC) Dis- patchers to provide them with any and all information pertaining to an emergency or non-emergency call for police service. Dispatchers would, in addition to pro- viding officers with information about the call, sometimes search the CPS records management system (RMS) to provide additional details on criminal history, risk factors, and anything else they deemed rel- evant to the call. The RTOC Implementation Team deter- mined there was a need for multiple po- sitions and functions to be housed in the RTOC. Along with a second Duty Inspec- tor, who would provide the command and control support to frontline officers from inside the Center, the team identified the need for a full staff, providing support in investigation, intelligence gathering and coordination, and real-time analytical guidance. These positions work together in the RTOC to support frontline officers and Duty Inspectors in their response to, and command of, policing activity in real time. Within a period of one year, the RTOC was transformed into a fully functioning and fully staffed crime-fighting Center. It is run on a 24/7 basis, using four teams – Chief Rick Hanson, Calgary Police Service, had the original vision for the RTOC. each one run by two Duty Inspectors; one inside the Center and one on the street. Teams are comprised of two Detectives, one Constable, and four civilians – a Crime Analyst and three Information Coordina- tors. Supporting staff also include a Legal Advisor, a full-time IT specialist, an Ana- lytical Resource Manager, and an Admin- istrative Inspector who oversees staffing and training initiatives. Organizationally, the RTOC Superin- tendent reports directly to the Chief. This decision was made to avoid the RTOC becoming a strictly operational or inves- tigative unit, as it likely would have had it fallen under a Bureau. This reporting structure has, thus far, ensured the Cen- ter is supporting both important policing functions: frontline response and investi- gative management. In fact, the RTOC has effectively become a sort of "bridge" between these functions, helping to ensure first responders are able to perform all necessary tasks prior to in- cident command being assumed by a unit such as Robbery or Homicide. The Center also works to provide these investigative units with all relevant infor- mation pertaining to the incident so they may "hit the ground running" when they arrive on scene. This includes offender and victim profiles, checks of all relevant information systems, maps and photos of the crime location, offender / victim pho- tos, and an overall real-time analysis of the incident. This connection between frontline and investigative areas is ex- actly what was missing in the original RTCC model. Another important function of the RTOC is referred to as deconfliction. This is a term made popular by the military, and is used frequently in the CPS as a way of ensuring an address or person is not being worked on by more than one officer / unit. In a city of 1.1 million, it is essential for members and analysts to check with one another before targeting a person or location for investigation. Without this cross-check, work duplica- tion could result and at worst, colliding resources, possibly involving officers working in a covert capacity: blue-on-blue, "friendly fire" incidents. The RTOC uses an in-house devel- oped database to perform deconflic- tion. Anytime an officer or work unit decides to work on a particular target, their first task is to contact the RTOC – either by phone or e-mail – to deconflict the name / address. This information is then entered into the database so there is a record of the operation. This way, if any further interest is directed at this name / address, by a different person or unit, the RTOC is able to put these indi- viduals in contact with one another. The RTOC deconflicts about 40 names and / or addresses a week. Each of the four Crime Analysts is as- signed to a team, and is responsible for tasking and checking the work of the In- formation Coordinators; ensuring they can support the work of the Analysts from an information-gathering and collating standpoint. This way, the Analysts are free to perform higher-level analysis of crime incidents or patterns and series. Their pri- mary role is to find any and all information pertaining to a specific incident, searching all available data sources, from those that are covert to public open-source work on the Internet. Crime reporting, once received and pro- cessed by the PSC, appears in the RTOC both in the form of radio broadcasts and www.lawandordermag.com 39