Many eyes are on the 850 federal agents in tactical gear that have “surged” across Washington, D.C., this week as part of President Donald Trump's executive order to address what he called "out of control" crime. But behind the officers lie thousands of cameras in a private room filled with the glow of computer screens all connected to one master feed.
It’s called the Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC), where a team of analysts watches a network of more than 28,000 public and private cameras positioned across the district on a 24/7 basis, made possible by a new, multimillion-dollar, AI-powered surveillance center known as FususONE.
A MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR BET ON LOCAL CONTROL
Just more than a year old, FususONE is a new addition to the city; it wasn’t in place during the 2020 protests.
The system is an all-in-one platform that fuses all a community's video assets into a single platform. It can pull in live feeds from a wide range of sources, including drones, traffic cameras, private cellphone video or building security cameras and combine them with other data such as floor plans, license plate readers, gunshot detection technology and camera registry maps for officers in the field.
This powerful system came with a hefty price tag: $13 million for new cameras and license plate readers, in addition to $3.4 million for other technology procurement. On top of this, $8.7 million was allocated to staff the department with civilian positions and new community safety officers to operate the new systems.
Watch a video version, with statements from President Trump and others, below.
THE OLD RULES, THE NEW REALITY
When it opened, there were specific rules for this center set by the district. An order explicitly stated the automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) that feed into the RTCC system "shall not be used for the purpose of tracking or identifying the presence of individuals participating in First Amendment assemblies who are not engaged in unlawful conduct." Another policy dictates that LPRs can be used in "metropolitan area-wide law enforcement initiatives only with the prior written approval of the chief of police or designee.”
Notably, according to media reports, some district locals are protesting federal traffic checkpoints.
But under the executive order, the president and his staff assert the chief isn’t in charge anymore. Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, is. As "emergency police commissioner," he appears to have access to these tools for "federal purposes."
Real-time crime centers have been the source of powerful success stories. For example, a press release from the Metropolitan Police Department highlighted the center's effectiveness in catching two teens for carjacking in 2024. In another case from June, the RTCC assisted in a barricade situation after investigators tracked a suspect's vehicle from the scene of a shooting. The suspect, accused of assault with a dangerous weapon, was later arrested.
But the same features that allow for such a powerful response also enable other uses. Under the president's directive, the RTCC's ability to issue a "lookout" for a suspect could be repurposed to anyone wanted for "federal purposes."
A NEW DEFINITION OF LAW AND ORDER
On Aug. 12, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed details about the types of criminals federal officers were detaining, explaining that the previous night officers made 23 arrests. They included serious charges such as homicide and firearms offenses, but also a number of less serious charges such as "fare evasion" and "no permits," revealing the broad reach of the federal action.
“This is only the beginning. Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the district who breaks the law, undermines public safety and endangers law-abiding Americans,” said Leavitt.
When asked by a reporter if there would be an immigration enforcement aspect to the federal activity in the district, Leavitt asserted that should officers encounter an “illegal alien” appropriate measures would be taken to detain and deport them.
“No city should be a sanctuary for anyone other than law-abiding American citizens,” said Leavitt.
When Trump announced the executive order Aug. 11, he announced to reporters at a press conference that officers wouldn’t face the constraints they have in the past in how they could do their jobs, adding, “now they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.”
“They fought back against law enforcement last night, and they’re not going to be fighting back long,” Trump said. “I said, 'You tell them, you spit and we hit. And they can hit real hard.'”
THE DISAPPEARING LINE OF AUTHORITY
The executive order, "Restoring Law and Order in the District of Columbia," details that MPD and their tech do not currently serve a local mission. The RTCC and other tech tools, once governed by local policy for "official law enforcement purposes only," could have a new, primary mission to serve a federal agenda.
When Government Technology asked the Metropolitan Police Department if federal officers had access to the city's RTCC and ALPR data for federal activities, a spokesperson provided the following statement: “MPD works collaboratively with our partners on a daily basis already, including information and intelligence sharing, and we will continue to do so as part of the task force.”
Yet asked if the takeover was similar to other collaborations with federal agencies at a press conference, Mayor Muriel Bowser explained, “It’s not like a special events task force where we work together.“
"I don’t want to minimize the intrusion on our autonomy," she said. "It is very different than working a special event and that is not what we’re trying to do.”
When asked about the takeover, a spokesperson for Axon, which provided the technology for the FususONE system, offered a statement that read in part: “As the manufacturer of the Axon Fusus system, our role is to provide public safety agencies with tools to enhance situational awareness and improve response times. The utilization of these tools — including policies on data sharing, system integrations and operational decisions — are determined entirely by the agencies themselves.”
DATA IS 'INCREDIBLY LEAKY'
Privacy activists have long sounded the alarm that RTCCs pose privacy and civil liberties risks.
“There’s a lack of imagination for the worst case scenario, and people don’t want to believe that something that could be used for good would be used for bad,” Beryl Lipton, a senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in an interview with Government Technology.
She asserted that any claims local governments make about where data will not end up isn't responsible.
“The only way to ensure that people who aren't supposed to have access to this data don't get access to it is by not collecting it and not storing it in the first place,” she said. “Data is incredibly leaky, and we cannot guarantee that any data that has been stored somewhere is ultimately going to be safe.”
Lipton suggested that localities do an audit and inventory of the surveillance technologies they use and data access and sharing that could potentially be made possible.
Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union, believes that D.C. council members likely didn't imagine this outcome when considering the initial investment.
“I don't think that they contemplated this would be flowing to Pam Bondi, to the Trump administration and their malevolent war on immigrants,” said Stanley. “I think it's a lesson for local communities around the country, which is that if you think you could collect a bunch of data on the people in your community and ... what they're doing and where they're going, and not have it being used for other abusive purposes by malevolent federal agencies or other state governments, then you need to think twice.”
In Washington, the cameras that federal agents now potentially have access to aren’t just public. There’s several private partners through the city that have allowed the RTCC to have real-time access to their cameras as well.
“One of the symptoms that we've seen of the growing surveillance products that are on the market today is that they bring in data from a lot of different places, and they put it all in one place, including from private businesses. And so we're seeing the lines blur between private businesses and government agencies in some cases,” said Stanley.
A BATTLE FOR AUTONOMY IN THE COURTS
The future for the district's local autonomy is murky. Trump has made it clear he intends for the federal takeover to last longer than the 30 days allowed under the Home Rule Act. He is preparing a crime bill that would "initially" pertain to the district and include "long-term extensions" for the federal government’s control. If that fails, he has noted that he could call a national emergency.
“I don’t want to call a national emergency, but if I have to I will. I think the Republicans will approve this unanimously,” he said.
He also explained he’s interested in taking similar actions in other cities, and that what's happening in Washington could serve as a model for similar approaches in places such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
While the District of Columbia has unique rules and charters that give the federal government more authority over the area than other cities located in states, what happens with the district lawsuit will be important to watch.
“Our whole country is going to be so different and so great, it’s going to be clean and safe and beautiful and people are going to love our flag more than they’ve ever loved it,” Trump said.
