Tracy police see reduced crime, quicker response times utilizing modern technology
The Tracy Police Department is utilizing modern technology to help it combat crime and said it is seeing results after building an innovative real-time information center (RTIC) last August.
CBS News Sacramento spoke with Lieutenant Daniel Garcia, who said the department is still trying to grow it because it's "the future of policing."
Garcia said this is San Joaquin County's first active real-time information center.
"One of our effective tools right now is looking at the camera systems that we have around our city to observe the issues that we're having," Garcia said.
The RTIC operators listen to 911 calls and have eyes on the issue, giving the officers information from what they see from the 133-plus cameras throughout Tracy. Garcia said they've seen some success stories from the RTIC, including operators finding missing people and identifying them, finding people who have weapons in the streets, and stopping burglaries and car thefts.
"We're all in it for this community. We want to make sure that our community, they always back us up, and we want to back them up because they're important to us," Garcia said. "And so making sure that we provide them that effective tool of public safety is important."
Tracy police community relations coordinator Kaylin Heefner told CBS News Sacramento that violent crimes — homicide, rape, and aggravated assault — are down 30%, and property crimes — vehicle thefts, burglaries, and arson — are down 13% from 2024 to 2025.
Heefner also said the department's overall response time has improved significantly, with some calls seeing response times shortened by as much as 47 seconds.
Heefner was born and raised in Tracy. She said it's "extremely important" that her community is safe. She enjoys being "part of the team that works together to make that happen and then (to) share that information with the community."
There are also drones that their patrol teams have. Garcia said they are looking to fly drones out of their RTIC and are looking to add a crime analyst within the RTIC, as well.
