Irvine Crime Center Integrates Drones, Data and Dispatch

Irvine Crime Center Integrates Drones, Data and Dispatch

Irvine Crime Center Integrates Drones, Data and Dispatch


The Irvine Police Department unveiled its state-of-the art Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) last week.

The RTCC’s technology links crimes and criminals more quickly in real time by bringing together law enforcement databases and other resources into one room and facilitating communication with the dispatch center, police officers and first responders.

To link quicker is to be able to solve crimes more easily,” said Irvine Police Department spokesperson Kyle Oldoerp.

The surveillance capability of the RTCC expands beyond the 67 square miles that make up Irvine however. As a result, the RTCC is expected to benefit adjacent cities that don’t have similar resources.

If there’s a stolen vehicle and it leaves their city and comes into our city, our license plate readers are absolutely able to pick it up and we’ll be able to recover that vehicle for them,” Oldoerp told OrangeCountyLawyers.com.

The RTCC, formerly a traffic engineering space within the Irvine City Hall Police Complex, consists of five work stations located within a few hundred square feet.
Currently, Irvine enjoys the title of being one of America’s safest cities for 19 years straight, according to FBI Uniform Crime Reporting statistics.

We’re continuing to provide the best service we can to our community and arrest people who come here to commit crime because most crimes that occur in Irvine are not Irvine residents,” Oldoerp said in a phone interview. “They’re coming here from other cities.”

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$2 Million Grant Funds Irvine Real Time Crime Center

Constructing the hub was made possible by a $2 million grant secured from the state budget through Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris.

We started this as a pilot program in 2022 where we embedded a crime analyst in our dispatch center just to see if it was worthwhile and if it worked and it did,” Oldoerp said.

Proceeds from the grant are paying for two real-time crime specialists, a crime analyst, and a full-time remote operator of the department’s existing drone program.

Having a drone pilot is a game changer for us because it means we can immediately get a drone up in the air and start looking for any crime that’s occurring,” Oldoerp said.

In addition to drones, the RTCC will leverage license plate readers with 200 intersection cameras as well as 500 cameras in parks, outside schools and other locations around town.

It’s the integration of our crime analysts with our dispatch center so, we’re just trying to figure out every day how to make the most of that technology even more,” Oldoerp said.

By mid-2025, the RTCC will be expanded by 125 square feet and include a video wall, which will display multiple small screens tied together to create an overarching one.

We are sending a loud and clear message to criminals that if you come to Irvine and commit a crime, we’re going to find you, arrest you, and the county of Orange is going to prosecute you,” Oldoerp added.

*Photo is an AI interpretation of a crime monitoring center.

Juliette Fairley
Juliette Fairley

Juliette Fairley covers legal topics for various publications including the Southern California Record, the Epoch Times and Pacer Monitor-News. Prior to discovering she had an ease and facility for law, Juliette lived in Orange County and Los Angeles where she pursued acting in television and film.

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