With support from a $500,000 grant from QuikTrip, the Overland Park Police Department plans to upgrade its emergency operations to transform it into a Real Time Information Center ahead of the World Cup.
A Real Time Information Center, a longtime wish list item for the police department and city, uses technology, cameras and data from various sources to help make first responder deployment decisions and improve communication, among other things.
Though the Overland Park City Council Public Safety Committee got a presentation last week on how it would work and what the department intends to use it for, they took no action on it.
That being said, as is standard for budgeted projects, the committee and the full Overland Park City Council will likely be asked to take some kind of action related to the Real Time Information Center project.
How would it work?
Real Time Information Centers, sometimes called RTICs, are popping up around the country at larger police departments. Police departments in places like Austin, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Kansas City, Kansas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma, have already stood them up or have a similar system in place.
During the committee meeting last week, Maj. Keith Jenkins said Overland Park Police would operate like a “central hub” from which the department could gather, analyze and share information internally and with other city departments. It could be used in day-to-day operations as well as in emergency situations, like natural disasters, large traffic crashes or other major events.
“It’ll be real-time information that we can put out to the units, to the people in the field,” Jenkins said.
The idea is to put the RTIC at the city’s at the Fire Training Center near the dispatch unit, said Officer John Lacy, police department public information officer. Putting the two in “proximity will create a centralized location for managing critical incidents.”
The system would pull in data from city cameras, other government cameras, social media, drones, the department’s license plate readers and other sources. Additionally, private citizens with their own security or other home cameras can opt in to have their feed shared with the department, and the city is exploring ways to get body camera feeds included as well with plans to purchase new devices to make that possible.
All of that data would then be used to help the department and the city more broadly make decisions about how to respond to a situation, Jenkins said.
“It is going to hopefully be able to make our community a safer place,” he said.
Lacy said the hope is that the RTIC would be “a city-wide resource, not solely for the benefit of the police department,” and could be used to respond to all sorts of incidents the city might face.
Councilmembers at the committee meeting did raise questions about long-term data storage. They also asked about what kind of public record rules these materials may be subject to and how the Real Time Information Center would acquire its data.
But, Councilmember Gregg Riess, who was filling in as chair at the committee meeting, said he sees something like the Real Time Information Center as necessary.
“I’m not sure how you do your job without this, honestly,” he said, “if you think about the risks that are out there, all the information that’s available, and being able to pull it together so you can make those types of decisions.”
QuikTrip gives out philanthropic community grants
QuikTrip, which has dozens of locations in Johnson County and the wider Kansas City metro area, will kick in half of the funding required to cover the startup cost of the Real Time Information Center. Jenkins said the money from QuikTrip has helped the department “propel” the project forward after planning for something like it for years.
According to QuikTrip’s website, the gas station company gives money each year to community-focused projects, primarily in areas that help at-risk youth, military families early childhood education, Safe Place and United Way, as well as public safety programs and services. In particular, these funds go to communities in which they already have gas stations.
The city received its QuikTrip grant after applying because police department officials had heard that QuikTrip had helped cover the cost of another community starting up something similar in the past.
“[D]iscussions with them regarding this initiative led to their consideration to help fund a project that will benefit both the City of Overland Park and the greater Kansas City community,” Officer Lacy said.
Real Time Information Center has $1M starting price tag
In addition to the grant from QuikTrip, the department has budgeted another $500,000 to complete the upgrade, putting the starting cost at $1 million.
That money will cover the initial cost to stand up the Real Time Information Center, and for now, Police Chief Doreen Jokerst said the plan is to reassign staff to operate it. However, she said that down the line, the department may seek to add new staff positions to run it, which could be filled by civilians and/or sworn police officers. Adding personnel would come with additional costs beyond the grant and budgeted funds, which would require the department to get approval from the city council.
At the same time, Jokerst said the department could look at cooperative agreements with other cities or other partners to share resources down the line, and that could bring in additional revenue to help fund the information center’s operations.
The police department has not provided other specifics beyond the startup cost at this time.
Next steps:
- Though the Real Time Information Center project is already budgeted, the committee and the city council will still need to vote on approving a vendor, contracts or other agreements to stand it up.
- Maj. Jenkins said that proposal would likely come up for consideration in a few months.
- Department officials last week said they expect the information center to be operational by spring 2026, in time to have it fully online by the summer 2026 World Cup.
- In the meantime, Chief Jokerst also stressed that the department will be crafting policies for how the information center can be used as well as how data will be accessed and managed.
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