At a Glance
Real-Time Operations Center team of seven supporting campus safety operations
28 seconds typical time to establish a relevant camera view once a call comes in
35,000 people on campus at any given time
Theft investigations that once took weeks can now often be resolved in a day
A Real-Time Operations Model for a Growing Campus
Grand Canyon University is a large, active campus environment where students, faculty, staff, visitors, vendors, residential life, parking activity, athletics, events, and after-hours operations all intersect. At any given time, approximately 35,000 people may be on campus, creating a complex safety environment that requires speed, visibility, and alignment across teams.
For Mason Mills, RTOC Manager at Grand Canyon University, the goal is clear: help officers understand what is happening as quickly as possible, so they can arrive more informed and prepared.
GCU’s Real-Time Operations Center serves as a centralized hub for campus safety response. When a call comes in, operators use Verkada alongside dispatch information and drone response workflows to assess the situation, bring the right teams into the response, and give officers timely context.
“Verkada helps us turn real-time information into a more informed response,” said Mills. “It gives officers better context before they arrive on scene.”
From the RTOC, operators can review live and archived footage, locate relevant video faster, and share appropriate views from Verkada cameras with the stakeholders involved in a response.
From Manual Searches to Faster Incident Review
Before Verkada, GCU relied on a legacy, server-based video management system that made it difficult to scale camera coverage across campus to address growing and evolving needs. Adding coverage required more on-premises infrastructure and coordination, limiting how quickly GCU could respond.
As a result, investigations were more manual and more reactive. Officers often had to physically search areas of campus, collect statements, and piece together what happened after the fact.
“It was much more old school,” said Mills. “You had officers going out, talking to third parties, getting statements, and trying to piece everything together after the fact.”
With Verkada, GCU’s RTOC can support response from the moment a call comes in. Operators use computer-aided dispatch (CAD) to identify the call location, open nearby cameras in Command, determine whether the incident is taking place inside or outside a building, and provide responding officers with relevant visual context.
“Before, we were relying more heavily on what was being reported over the phone,” said Mills. “Now, the RTOC can verify what’s happening in real time and give officers better information as they respond.”
Establishing Context in Seconds
Since launching the RTOC, GCU logs calls and measures how quickly operators can establish a relevant camera view to support a response. According to Mills, the team’s typical time to get visual context on a reported incident is approximately 28 seconds.
That speed matters in a dynamic campus environment. A caller may report what they remember in the moment, but details can be partial, outdated, or incorrect. With Verkada, the RTOC can quickly clarify those details and share more accurate information with officers.
“Having that context early helps officers arrive more informed and prepared,” said Mills. “That can make a real difference in how quickly and effectively they respond.”
Verkada’s map-based interface, building organization, and subsite structure help the team quickly narrow in on the right area. Once operators know where a call is located, they can review nearby views and share relevant updates with officers.
If an incident is outside, the team may also coordinate with GCU’s Drone as First Responder (DFR) program, using drones and fixed camera views together to maintain awareness of the area and support a more organized response.
Mills also emphasized how intuitive the platform is for operators, especially new hires. “Verkada is user-friendly and easy to train our staff on,” said Mills. “Someone can learn the basics in a matter of minutes.”
Using AI-Powered Search to Resolve Theft Investigations Faster
One of GCU’s most common call types is theft, particularly involving scooters and bikes. With roughly 35,000 people on campus at any given time and a high volume of students using scooters and bikes, incidents can range from accidental mix-ups to intentional theft.
Before Verkada, these investigations could take weeks. Now, the RTOC can often resolve them in a day.
When a theft call comes in, operators can identify nearby cameras around scooter parking areas, residence halls, lobbies, or other relevant locations. Using Verkada’s AI-powered search, the team can quickly locate relevant footage based on incident details, such as clothing descriptions, vehicle details, or other reported attributes.
In some cases, the incident may involve a roommate, a mistaken pickup, or a student taking the wrong scooter. In others, it may be an actual theft. Either way, video gives the team objective evidence to understand what happened and move the case forward.
“Before, a theft investigation could take weeks. Now, we can often resolve it in a day.”
That impact extends beyond the individual case. By resolving more investigations from the RTOC, GCU can keep officers available for higher-priority calls that require an in-person response.
“Being able to resolve more from the RTOC frees up officers for the situations where someone may actually be in danger,” said Mills.
Turning Incident Details Into Faster Answers
GCU’s real-time model relies on more than simply watching video. The team uses Verkada to connect reported incident details with relevant footage faster.
With AI-powered search, operators can search based on available descriptions, vehicle attributes, location, or other details tied to a specific call. If a vehicle is involved, license plate recognition and nearby camera context can help operators understand more than just a plate number, including the vehicle’s appearance, location, and direction of travel.
Instead of manually reviewing footage camera by camera, the RTOC can use search, maps, and live views to find relevant information faster. That gives officers better context and reduces the amount of time spent on manual review.
A Unified Platform for Campus Safety Workflows
GCU’s real-time operations model extends beyond video security. The university uses Verkada cameras together with access control, alarms, intercoms, and license plate recognition to support a more connected campus safety workflow.
At key gates and perimeter areas, GCU has deployed license plate recognition, intercoms, and alarms to improve visibility and support entry management. Intercoms help reduce the need to physically staff certain gates, allowing approved individuals to be granted access remotely.
The team is also exploring additional access control use cases, including administrative lockdown workflows and cameras near guard booths to support safety, transparency, and insurance documentation.
For Mills and the RTOC team, the value of Verkada is unifying campuswide safety operations in one platform.
“If something happens, we can pull up the cameras, search the area, look at archived video, and get the information to the people who need it,” said Mills.
GCU also uses custom permissions and site roles to ensure users have the right level of access. The RTOC is the main owner of the Verkada account and can distribute historical security footage or live camera feeds to stakeholders such as campus safety teams, building leaders, and other authorized users with time-based, view-only or other customized permissions.
Privacy and access controls are especially important in a campus environment. GCU uses capabilities such as face blur, live-view-only access, and custom site roles to ensure staff only access what is necessary and appropriate for their job function.
Supporting Campus and Community Safety
GCU’s investment in real-time operations is also connected to its broader commitment to the community around campus. The university works alongside local businesses and law enforcement as part of a private-public partnership focused on improving safety, reducing crime, and strengthening perimeter security.
For GCU’s RTOC, the goal is to ensure campus safety teams, officers, and community partners have the same timely information when a response is needed.
“Having the right information at the right time helps everyone make better decisions,” said Mills. “It gives our team, responding officers, and community partners a shared understanding of what’s happening so we can coordinate more effectively.”
By using Verkada to centralize live video, archived footage, alerts, and access to relevant camera feeds, GCU can support faster communication between the RTOC, officers in the field, campus stakeholders, and law enforcement partners when appropriate.
As the university continues to evolve its real-time operations strategy, Mills sees additional value in API integrations and evidence workflows that can make the collaboration between campus safety operations and law enforcement even more seamless.
Building Toward More Informed Campus Safety Operations
GCU’s use of Verkada reflects a broader shift toward more connected campus safety operations: using real-time context to help officers respond faster, reduce reliance on incomplete witness accounts, and resolve incidents with objective evidence.
For theft, that may mean determining what happened to a scooter. For a call in progress, it may mean clarifying a description before officers arrive. For perimeter security, it may mean using LPR, intercoms, alarms, and cameras together to understand who needs access and whether a response is required.
For other universities considering Verkada, Mills’ advice is to fully lean into the platform’s search capabilities.
“The AI-powered search is extremely valuable,” said Mills. “You can search historical footage and find things much faster than you could with manual review.”
For GCU, Verkada has become a foundation for faster response, shared understanding, and more informed decision-making across campus.
“By bringing real-time context into the RTOC, our officers can arrive more prepared, resolve investigations faster, and keep campus safety operations focused on what matters most: protecting the people and community they serve.”