From Solving Drive-By Shootings to Wildfire Evacuations: Inside Spokane County's RTCC

Situation

Spokane County — home to more than 500,000 residents in eastern Washington — faces higher-than-average crime rates. The Sheriff's Office already had cameras, license plate readers, and CAD systems, but those tools lived in silos. Officers and analysts couldn't fully leverage what the agency was already paying for.

Challenge

Bringing everything together meant turning a fragmented set of feeds — 911 calls, Flock LPR, traffic and fixed cameras, body-worn video, social media, law enforcement databases — into one shared environment where trained analysts could see and act in real time. The space also had to be a regional asset, serving multiple agencies from a single shared hub.

Solution

Fountainhead Control Rooms partnered with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office to design and build the physical environment — consoles, layout, and sightlines — that turns a room full of monitors into a true command center. Within a retrofit footprint, Fountainhead delivered custom consoles supporting multiple monitors, specialized input devices, and cable management; an ISO 11064-compliant, operator-centric layout for ergonomics and sustained performance; clear sightlines to a central video wall for every analyst; and a scalable design that grows as the RTCC adds agencies, technology, or operators.

Results

The center was funded by nearly $4M in federal ARPA dollars approved by the Spokane County Board of Commissioners, plus about $850K in ARPA funds from the City of Spokane Valley — making it a regional asset. Operational outcomes include 150+ arrests or charges in serious cases, 88 stolen vehicles recovered, 9 missing persons safely located, and coordinated wildfire evacuations during the 2023 Gray and Oregon Road fires.