Public safety is evolving rapidly. Leaders are facing tough decisions about where to focus limited resources and which technologies will have the greatest impact on both agency operations and the communities they serve.
In this setting, the most effective investments are the ones that deliver results quickly. Across the country, departments are seeing meaningful returns from tools that reduce manual work, improve coordination, and support confident decision-making.
These five technologies are standing out for their ability to create real change, often within weeks of implementation.
Preparing for command meetings shouldn’t take all week. Yet in many departments, CompStat still relies on static reports and manually built slides that take hours to compile and are often outdated by the time they’re reviewed.
Real-time dashboards give leadership a live view of crime trends, call volume, and operational data. Analysts spend less time building charts, and command staff can ask sharper questions and get immediate answers during the meeting.
While CompStat remains a core management framework, agencies are looking for faster, more flexible ways to use it. In early 2025, we added FMStat to the ForceMetrics Velocity™ platform to bring CompStat into real time, and the response has been strong. Now, command staff walk into meetings with live data and make informed decisions on the spot—without hours of prep or follow-up.
Want to learn more about how FMStat supports real-time decision-making? Read the FMStat press release →
Criminal activity doesn’t stop at jurisdictional boundaries, and neither should investigations. For many departments, solving cases and spotting patterns depends on access to data from neighboring agencies.
That’s why we prioritized seamless cross-agency search as a core feature in ForceMetrics. Our users can expand searches beyond their jurisdiction to surface shared incident records, related individuals, and cross-agency histories without logging into a separate system or waiting on a request.
As one lieutenant put it, “Instantly seeing cross-jurisdictional incident histories has transformed how we investigate.” Another mentioned, “Criminals don’t stop at city limits.”
The need is clear: 89% of law enforcement professionals say investigations take up the majority of their shift, and 91% prefer to access as much information as possible from a single platform with one login (LexisNexis Risk Solutions, 2023). ForceMetrics was built to meet that need—reducing friction and saving time by bringing cross-agency data into one unified search experience.
RTCCs are gaining traction fast, with adoption growing 148% over the past four years. Around 150 departments now operate some form of real-time center, combining video, CAD, LPR, and analytics to support coordinated response.
San Francisco’s Real-Time Investigation Center (RTIC) illustrates the power of modern RTCCs, supporting over 500 arrests since launch and contributing to a 28% drop in crime in 2024 and an additional 30% decline in early 2025. The RTIC integrates live public safety camera feeds, mobile surveillance units, drone footage, and ALPR technology to support faster, more informed decision-making in the field.
But not every agency has the budget, staffing, or infrastructure to build a dedicated RTCC facility. That’s why many departments are turning to virtual RTCCs, using cloud-based environments that integrate the same mission-critical data sources and alerting capabilities without the overhead of a physical center.
ForceMetrics can support departments building virtual RTCCs or strengthen the infrastructure of existing centers by connecting data across systems like CAD, RMS, jail, and ALPR. To see how agencies are using ForceMetrics as the backbone of real-time coordination, read the full blog →.
Managing digital evidence has become one of the most time-consuming parts of modern investigations. Video footage, interview audio, and surveillance files all need to be stored, reviewed, tagged, and shared. Doing it manually slows down investigators, analysts, prosecutors, and frontline officers alike.
That’s why agencies across the U.S. are turning to AI-powered platforms that automate key steps in the process. A range of technology providers now offer solutions built to support law enforcement workflows, including:
Agencies have reported up to a 50% improvement in overall investigation productivity, including significant time and cost savings, after adopting AI-powered evidence management tools.
Departments collect massive amounts of data every day, but the real challenge is turning it into something useful. Decision support tools help solve that by connecting information across people, places, and events. Then they make it searchable, sortable, and easy to act on.
These tools are used in a variety of ways:
ForceMetrics was built to address this exact challenge, helping agencies turn fragmented data into clear, actionable insights. As one command staff leader put it: “I didn’t realize how much we were reacting until we saw what it felt like to lead with real-time context.”
Agencies using the platform report major gains in speed, situational clarity, and the ability to answer complex questions on the fly.
Want to see how departments are making the shift? Read: “Precision Policing in Practice”
Technology should make policing easier, not harder. The tools above help departments cut through noise, surface what matters most, and act with greater confidence.
For agencies evaluating where to invest next, these five areas offer practical ways to reduce manual work, improve coordination, and support real-time decision-making. In a resource-constrained environment, every investment counts. The right ones can make an immediate difference.