In the fast pace of public safety, speed and reliability of technology is not a “nice-to-have,” it’s a necessity, and can be the difference between an officer having critical information before interacting with a suspect, and arriving at that scene blind. These qualities determine whether a platform becomes part of a department’s daily operations or gets pushed aside for occasional reporting and retrospective analysis.
Just hours after attending ForceMetrics training, a detective at a Police Department in Washington state found himself relying on the platform to help him find the suspect of an attempted homicide. A woman had been shot in the face, and officers were scrambling to gather suspect information while securing the scene. The situation was rapidly evolving, and as with many violent crimes, the first few minutes were critical.
From tough leadership calls and product pivots to responsible use of AI and staying grounded what actually matters, this episode pulls back the curtain on what it takes to move forward with intention.
The final piece is what agencies do with that knowledge, particularly when it comes to preventing repeat incidents and recognizing patterns early enough to act.
Commander Todd Brown of Castle Rock PD shares how his agency is leading from the front as early adopters of ForceMetrics who are integrating it across departments to bring better context, clarity, and confidence to every call.
In part 2, we touched on the importance of being able to surface all necessary data in order to identify patterns and repeat offenders of property theft from parked vehicles – as it’s often not a singular job. This next step is about understanding something just as important, which is when and in what conditions is theft from parked vehicles likely to occur.
In public safety, understanding how an event ends is just as important as how it begins. Calls for service and incident reports provide critical context, but the outcome is often what drives decisions, reporting and follow-up actions. When time is short, and officers need to identify potential threats and uncover patterns of criminal behavior that may be associated with a suspect, access to arrest data is crucial.
In under 90 minutes, this Real Time Crime Center was able to locate the suspects involved in the shooting, locate their address, and apprehend them. The RTCC Chief said that without their technology working together, an investigation like this would have taken weeks and even months (if it was even possible to find the vehicle in the first place). It's amazing to see how technology, like ForceMetrics Velocity plays a critical role in their success.
When the call came in, it was urgent: a reported se*ual assault. Officers were dispatched immediately, knowing only the limited details provided in the initial report. Situations like this often come with uncertainty, and critical time is often lost trying to piece together who’s involved, what happened, and what risks may still be present.
