PHOENIX — As the Oakland (California) Police Department faced major staffing losses, high violent-crime demands and an increasing stream of real-time information, Lt. Gabriel Urquiza said the department had to solve a basic operational problem: How do you make sure the right lead reaches the right people before it goes cold?
During a session at the National Real Time Crime Center Association (NRTCCA) conference, Urquiza described how Oakland built a formal structure for strategy and coordination around its Real-Time Operation Center. The model brings together information from ALPR, CAD, radio traffic, investigators and partner agencies; triages it centrally; and assigns the next investigative step to the unit best positioned to act.
Oakland’s operational staffing had fallen from more than 700 officers to around 500 while violent crime remained high. According to figures Urquiza presented, the city recorded 2,877 robberies in 2024, or about 654 per 100,000 residents. Oakland also recorded 513 carjackings involving a firearm in 2023.
The staffing decline was particularly acute among the department’s specialized field resources, which Urquiza said were at approximately one-sixth of their pre-COVID level. Those assignments were also increasingly being filled by less-experienced personnel.
Oakland’s initial ALPR deployment called for approximately 290 cameras funded by the California Highway Patrol. CHP was also installing more than 100 cameras around freeway entrances and exits across the broader Bay Area.
The department did not give every user access at once.
Urquiza said he had seen what happened when agencies introduced large numbers of alerts without considering the workload they would create. Oakland instead rolled out ALPR access progressively, beginning with administrators and investigators before expanding it to street teams and patrol.
Urquiza said approximately 350 of Oakland’s 500 operational officers were eventually trained on the technology.
“We started slow rolling out, and we never had to walk anything back because of a lack of resources,” Urquiza said.
Oakland was averaging approximately 40 carjackings a month during the first half of 2024. After ALPR integration began in July, that number fell to approximately 20 per month during the second half of the year. The decline continued as Oakland expanded its broader real-time crime strategy.
Total carjackings fell from 672 in 2023 to 229 in 2025, a reduction of approximately 66%. Shootings fell from 1,171 in 2023 to 595 in 2025, while the city recorded 67 homicides in 2025, which Urquiza described as Oakland’s lowest total in decades.
The figures were presented in the context of Oakland’s broader operational changes, rather than as the result of ALPR alone. Urquiza focused much of the presentation on the system the department developed to evaluate alerts, coordinate resources and move investigations forward.
Building the workflow
Oakland’s Real-Time Operation Center became the department’s central triage point. Information arrives through CAD, radio, ALPR, investigators, partner agencies and other intelligence sources. RTOC personnel assess what matters, what remains to be done and which unit is best positioned to act.
One of the problems Oakland identified was the delay between the initial response to a serious crime and the point at which an investigator assumed responsibility for the case. Officers might identify evidence, a victim or other potential leads at the scene, but investigators could be unaware of related gang conflicts, social media activity or intelligence held by another unit.
The RTOC began conducting an early assessment soon after a crime occurred. Its personnel reviewed the available information, identified outstanding investigative steps and directed those tasks to the appropriate level.
If patrol could complete an unfinished preliminary step, the RTOC sent the task back to patrol. If the work required surveillance, specialized investigative capabilities or another resource, the center contacted the appropriate team while bringing the Criminal Investigations Division into the process.
The early triage system was informal and depended heavily on relationships within the department. That made it vulnerable to personnel transfers and other staffing changes. With support from the department’s executive team, Oakland began turning that relationship-based process into a formal, department-wide workflow.
Urquiza said the process began with a whiteboard. A deputy chief wrote the word “Crime” and asked a simple question: “Now what?”
They spent approximately two hours mapping the possible investigative paths involving patrol, specialized teams, criminal investigations, gang units, county resources, the ATF, the FBI and other partners. The result was a complicated diagram showing how work moved through the department and where it could stall.
Oakland eventually reduced that diagram to a repeatable operating model:
Inputs → Triage → Support Type → Evidence/Information Collection → Intelligence Dissemination → Resource Deployment/Action
Support can be provided in real time, during a continuing investigation or after an arrest. Actions taken in response can also generate new information, sending the process back through triage.
Tracking what gets done — and what does not
Oakland then built a task-management system around the workflow. Its purpose was to display outstanding investigative steps, preserve the broader strategy behind an operation and measure whether department resources could keep pace with incoming work.
Tasks can be prioritized, assigned, tagged and tracked through completion. The tags show the priority, the units assigned, the units providing assistance and the final disposition. Because participating units can see one another’s work, the system also helps prevent duplicated effort and identify potentially conflicting investigations.
The system documents investigative work that cannot be completed because personnel or other resources are unavailable.
“Part of this wasn’t just showing the things that we were doing,” Urquiza said. “It was showing the things that we couldn’t do based on the resources we have.”
That gives department leaders more specific information than a general statement about staffing shortages. They can identify which investigative steps were not completed, what resources would have been required and where the most persistent operational gaps exist.
The consolidated system also provides command staff with a broader view of department operations, district-level projects and work being conducted with local, state and federal partners.
Coordination without taking control
Investigators initially expressed concern that the RTOC would take over their cases or interfere with tactical decisions.
Urquiza said Oakland addressed those concerns by establishing that the center would coordinate support without directing investigations. Individual teams retained authority over their cases and continued to make their own investigative and tactical decisions.
“We weren’t there to dictate any of their investigations,” he said. “We were there to facilitate.”
Once that distinction became clear, investigative teams began approaching the RTOC for assistance. The center could identify available information, connect units and coordinate resources without changing who was responsible for the investigation.
Urquiza emphasized that continuous communication with participating teams was critical. It allowed the RTOC to identify bandwidth and scheduling problems while maintaining support for the system.
Not every alert goes to patrol
Oakland also resisted the assumption that every ALPR alert should immediately reach a field officer.
Urquiza said the city was averaging more than 40 stolen vehicles a day in 2023. Sending every stolen-vehicle alert to patrol would have overwhelmed available resources and disrupted other operations, so those alerts remained active in the RTOC rather than being distributed directly to patrol.
By reviewing the alerts centrally, personnel began recognizing that not all stolen vehicles displayed the same patterns. Some movements appeared consistent with routine stolen-vehicle activity, while others suggested possible connections to robberies, auto burglaries or other serious crimes.
That allowed the RTOC to elevate selected vehicles based on the totality of the available information rather than treating every alert as an equal priority.
From an ALPR alert to an arrest
Urquiza illustrated the workflow with a robbery case involving a stolen vehicle.
The RTOC had observed the vehicle’s movements the previous day and identified a pattern potentially associated with robbery activity, but no field resources were available to address it at the time.
When the vehicle appeared again the following day, additional information increased its priority. The RTOC assigned a field team to monitor it while coordinating additional personnel and regional aviation support.
While officers were monitoring the vehicle, the occupants committed a robbery. They then traveled toward Oakland’s Chinatown district and began circling banks.
Officers intervened and arrested three suspects. Two firearms were recovered from the vehicle. A fourth person who allegedly attempted to assist the group was also arrested.
The case demonstrated the role of each part of the system. ALPR identified the vehicle. RTOC personnel interpreted its movements and combined the alert with other available information. The center prioritized the vehicle and coordinated aviation and field resources. Officers then acted on that information.
Oakland’s next phase
Oakland is now developing a community safety camera network that will include approximately 40 pan-tilt-zoom cameras. The department also plans to integrate voluntarily shared video from surveillance systems operated by businesses and other commercial partners.
As more sources are added, the triage process will become increasingly important. Additional cameras and alerts can provide more information, but they can also create more work for analysts, investigators and officers.
Oakland’s experience shows that deploying technology is only one part of building a real-time crime capability. Agencies must also determine who will review the information, how it will be prioritized, which unit will act on it and how that work will be tracked.
For Oakland, the RTOC provides the workflow connecting those steps — helping the department turn a growing volume of information into coordinated action while making better use of limited personnel.
