The Phoenix Police Department and the City of Phoenix held a ribbon-cutting for the new Real Time Operations Center at the Cactus Park Precinct Thursday afternoon.

The RTOC leverages the use of technology to fight crime along the 27th Avenue corridor, an area that has seen increasing violent crime. The goal behind the RTOC is to enhance area safety and create a better quality of life for residents.

“This is designed to immediately support patrol officers responding to calls,” stated Cactus Park Resource Lieutenant Scott Cain in a news release. “With the limited staffing, this is supplementing officer response to locations.”

The technology incorporated in the RTOC includes gunshot detection, cameras and license plate readers, and will help monitoring Police Assistants give real-time information to patrol officers in the area.

The idea to bring an RTOC to the department began in 2022 when Phoenix City Council approved a pilot project to address community safety through a multi-department, collaborative manner, using technology as well as community-based resources. An RTOC in the Desert Horizon Precinct is currently being built with hopes to be operational within the next year.

Editor’s note: The above was republished from a Phoenix Police Department news release.