D.C.’s police department is opening a new 24/7 “real-time crime center” where Metropolitan Police Department staff and regional law enforcement partners can monitor closed-circuit camera footage, emergency calls, and other kinds of technology in real time to help respond to crimes.

The center will be up and running in early 2024, D.C. officials said at a press conference Thursday.

These kinds of centers exist in police departments across the country. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that researches police surveillance technology, has tracked more than 140 of them. MPD Chief Pamela Smith said she visited police departments in New York and New Jersey as she developed the idea for D.C.’s center – and she plans on visiting centers in other cities, like Atlanta and Detroit, as she finalizes how the D.C. version will work.

The idea, Smith said at Thursday’s press conference, is that the center functions as a “nerve center” of law enforcement that will allow the police department to begin an investigation as soon as it receives a call for help. Sworn officers and civilian staff at MPD will be an extra set of eyes for officers responding on the street, constantly monitoring and “responding to criminal activities in real time,” Smith said at the press conference.

Smith said the department currently has about 300 cameras, but is working to procure more. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has committed to doubling the number of CCTV cameras across the city.

D.C. officials said the crime center is a collaboration with numerous other local and federal law enforcement agencies – including Amtrak police, Arlington County police, Fairfax County police, Montgomery County police, Prince George’s County police, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police, and the FBI.

Bowser and Smith framed the center as an important way to help police respond to crimes as they’re happening. The announcement comes as nearly every category of crime is up in D.C. compared to last year. Homicides are up 32%, robberies are up 70%, and motor vehicle theft is up more than 90%, according to D.C. police data.

“I am confident that we will turn crime trends down, and the reason that I’m confident is because I know that we’re focused,” Bowser said Thursday. “We’re focused on everything we can do on the executive side … working with the council, and working with our federal and regional partners.”

Proponents of the centers say they allow departments to police more accurately – but critics are worried that they’re part of a general rise in surveillance that could infringe on people’s privacy rights.

Monica Hopkins, the Executive Director of the ACLU of DC, called the center “an alarming expansion of government surveillance.”

“With no oversight, the real-time surveillance center leaves serious questions about our safety and our rights unanswered. What behavior will police be watching for? What will they do if they think they see it? How will police use what they see, and who will they share it with? And will anyone be there to ensure that police don’t violate people’s rights?” Hopkins wrote in an emailed statement.

During Thursday’s press conference, Smith said she couldn’t immediately speak to those concerns, but they are “certainly something we will work with our legal team” on.

Bowser said that she feels the discussion around cameras and surveillance is “fully different” than it used to be, and she’s in general hearing far less concern about surveillance. Instead, she told reporters Thursday, she hears regularly from residents and councilmembers who want more CCTV cameras in their neighborhoods and wards.

Bowser also said adding more cameras – and enhancing the police department’s ability to monitor them – will help counteract a loss of eyes on D.C. streets caused by lower police staffing and a rise in remote work.

“We literally have fewer feet on the ground and eyes on the street just from a change in commute patterns and the like, so it’s really important that we replace that,” Bowser said.