Irvine has become the first city in Orange County to open its own Real Time Crime Center, where police are using a mix of street cameras and other technology, data and analytics to solve and prevent crime.
The $2 million center, located at police headquarters, is manned by two crime specialists, a crime analyst and a drone pilot. The center’s staff monitors calls that come in to dispatch and identifies patterns, observes footage from security and other cameras around the city and operates a police drone.
“We track recent crime trends and patterns,” Senior Crime Analyst Rebecca Woolsey said. “If we see a call come out that looks similar, we can match, day, time and location to see if it’s related.”
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which handles law enforcement for 13 cities and some unincorporated areas across Orange County, opened its own $110 million real-time crime center in June in Tustin.
Kent said nearly three-fourths of the people arrested for crimes in Irvine come from elsewhere.
“We’re the safest city of our size (in the country),” Irvine police chief Michael Kent said, “but we need additional tools to deal with continuing crime – property crime, retail theft, motor vehicle theft.”
There were 1,323 reports of violent crime in Irvine in 2023, about 2% fewer than in 2022. Reports of property crime in the city in 2023 totaled 4,984, a less than 1% decline from the prior year.
As in other cities, those crimes include retail theft. Recently, an automated license plate reader alerted authorities to a car police said was connected to a string of thefts at the Irvine Spectrum Center, Irvine police spokesman Kyle Oldoerp said. Officers were dispatched and located the car’s occupants, reportedly seen tossing a pair of stolen $1,000 Prada sunglasses into the bushes. Two men were arrested.
The technology is also helping authorities locate missing persons and assist other agencies during wildfires and natural disasters.
Oldoerp said that the drone is used in a strictly reactionary way; it does not conduct regular surveillance.
When it opened, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said its center was the first of its kind in the county. However, despite not officially opening until this week, Irvine’s center was first piloted back in October 2022, Oldoerp said. And though the unveiling took place on Thursday, it has been functioning for a few months.
Similar centers have been cropping up all across the nation, and in neighboring counties. In September, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department opened its first Real Time Watch Center at its station in Agoura Hills.
The Irvine center doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that the larger sheriff’s department center has. But Irvine police hope to expand, and say they soon will have the ability to monitor security footage at local businesses.
Irvine receives $2 million in state funding for Real Time Crime Center
