Modesto California Police Force's Real-Time Crime Center Reducing 'Big Hot-Spot Crimes'

All seems calm at a busy intersection until a driver turns right against the light and starts driving erratically down the road. Whipping back and forth through traffic until he turns into the Save Mart shopping center, parks, and exits the car.

A police car approaches, the officer engages the man, holding conversation for a moment, before the man turns and takes off on foot. More police cars and motorcycles approach as he flees behind the Save Mart store and then across traffic, making his way down the embankment of Dry Creek.

Stuck on the steep slope between thick brush and awaiting officers, he gives up and is taken into custody.

The culmination of the Jan. 16 pursuit was caught by the multiple police cameras at the intersection of Oakdale Road and Scenic Drive, and on officers' bodycams. The cameras didn't just capture the event in 4K — a dedicated team of technicians in the Modesto Police Department's Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) used them to feed officers information about the suspect as he fled.

Video of the incident was posted Jan. 23 to the MPD Facebook page and currently has over 120,000 views, thousands of reactions and hundreds of comments. One user commented, "That was an awesome watch." Another added, "Great job! I felt like I was watching 'On Patrol.'"

"It's kind of like living out an episode of 'Cops' every day," Police Technician Supervisor Austin Simayo told The Bee during a recent tour of the RTCC. "It's really cool just to see what's going on around the city, and being able to immediately show up on scene whenever something's going down."

By "show up," he means RTCC staff quickly have eyes on scenes through hundreds of cameras across the city. Inside this center, about a dozen television screens display real-time video. To the left of the screens is FUSIS, a real-time dashboard, appearing as a large digital map showing the location of on-duty officers, surveillance and license plate reader cameras, and other live data.

A Modesto Bee story published when the RTCC first opened in 2016 described the center operating six pod cameras with "360-degree views and pan, title and zoom capabilities," and dozens of other traffic cameras that could feed into the system. Today, there are hundreds of live video feeds. Some cameras are in plain sight, like the big white boxes with the blue flashing lights, but many are not so obvious.

"The whole goal for our Real Time Crime Center is to provide situational awareness to the officers and to help drive down crime in the city of Modesto, so people feel safe," said Police Civilian Manager Cat McFadon.

Having access to officer's body-worn cameras has another benefit. "If an officer is in trouble, we can tap into that camera to evaluate the situation and send rapid support," she said.

McFadon said the center is primarily staffed by civilian employees trained to be real-time technicians. At times, police officers on light duty also work in the center. She said that though the RTCC only operates Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., it is in the process of hiring additional technicians to provide longer hours of service.

The hiring of additional technicians was funded partly by Measure H, which budgeted for three technicians, a senior technician and a manager for the center in the 2024-25 report.

McFadon said the RTCC was also awarded an organized retail theft grant from the Board of State and Community Corrections in 2023, which allowed for additional resources. "We were able to purchase cameras to put in retail theft established areas, so that helped increase our number of cameras," she said.

The RTCC does not yet have detailed data on how much crime has decreased as a result of its work, McFadon said, but there are certain types of crime it sees more often than others.

"We've been able to kind of reduce those big hot-spot crimes like catalytic converter theft, stolen vehicles, all of that," Police Technician Supervisor Austin Simayo said. "So I think the RTCC is playing a big part in reducing those numbers." Simayo added that the center has been successful in identifying hit-and-run collisions.

McFadon said the RTCC is the only one in Stanislaus County but it partners with neighboring police departments and the Sheriff's Department to better serve the whole community. "I just think it's a good program that provides safety for our citizens, we take a lot of pride in what we do," she said.

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