The IoE makes it possible to collect data and share it via the cloud, uniting disparate jurisdictions, agencies and ranks of command in positive ways. These smart and connected technologies promote collaboration and transparency among public safety agencies, revolutionizing how police, fire, courts and corrections do some of the nation’s most important work.
The Linked Blue Line
First responders pioneered robust and reliable communications. Police and fire radio systems remain workhorses of the professions. But IoE promises new levels of connectivity for personnel in the field, synthesizing real-time data for swift situational awareness.
Patrol cars, for instance, are being transformed into sophisticated mobile hubs for policing. New tools let officers gather, transmit and share information as it happens with commanders, emergency centers and other agencies for 360-degree situational awareness. As a result, first responders have unprecedented knowledge of incident perimeters, suspects and other pertinent intel before engagement.
Bob Stanberry, senior law enforcement advisor at Cisco, says good policing is all about collecting and networking information, getting it analyzed and making it actionable for the officer on the front line as well as everyone else who may need to access it later. State-of-the-art digital in-car radios, video cameras, tablets and dashboards are needed to provide that constant feed of data.
"Today’s law enforcement leaders understand that the patrol vehicle has become a rolling office,” Stanberry says. “The need for efficiency gains in public safety cannot be understated. Today’s deputies and officers are not only accustomed to a mobile world, but they expect such technology to be commonplace on the job, creating a more responsive and agile situational awareness for our first responders.”
The next generation of police vehicles will gather even more information from wearable cameras, sensors, drones, license plate recognition systems, robotics and GPS tracking – creating a deeply contextualized environment for officers. Soon, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, road sensors, street lights or traffic lights will monitor and communicate data from city streets, school districts, college campuses, public gathering spaces, infrastructures and community events.
Ultimately, the IoE will exponentially expand mutual aid and first responder safety by using intelligent communications to summon backup officers, medical personnel, fire fighters or other responders.
Transcending Courtroom Walls
The cross-architecture, cross-culture approach of the IoE continues further upstream to the courts, where police, district attorneys, judges and other court denizens are making better use of their time – because “in court” now can actually mean a police substation, a judge’s private chambers or even inside jail walls. Increasingly, the use of telepresence or video conferencing can make quick work of testimony, arraignment, warrant requests and other court transactions, freeing up time, labor and money for other purposes.
Testifying remotely via video means an officer needn’t miss a day of patrol duty. Judges can easily swear in officers from a tablet anywhere, signing an e-warrant on the spot and saving many hours on both sides. District attorneys, public defenders, probation officers and judges – each of them off-site -- may confer on cases in virtual conference rooms. The cost savings for each hearing is significant. Multiply that by thousands of such interactions each day, and the figures become game-changing.
Safer Corrections, Swifter Justice
Remote testimony and virtual hearings also are revolutionizing corrections, where business as usual was turned on its ear by the public sector revenue recession of 2007-2011.
Daniel Stewart, former chairman of the New York State Commission of Correction and now in business development for Cisco, says, “The economic downturn forced changes and, ultimately, adoption of new technologies in corrections I wouldn’t have believed possible. Now things have sped up to where state and local government is actually close to where the private sector is.”
These new technologies, improved practices and porousness of the IoE can knock down barriers in agencies and prevent wasted funds and man-hours. Consider the transport of inmates from jails to courtrooms. The actual court proceeding is often the least costly part of an in-person hearing. With each hearing there is a lengthy and expensive checklist of attendant costs: police escorts, inmate release and re-admittance processing, lengthy courtroom wait times and drive time each way.
Then there’s the issue of safety. An analysis of prisoner transportation incidents from 2002 to 2007 in New York found an average of 309 escapes annually. In 84 percent of those incidents, prisoners escaped from the back seat of a caged vehicle. Approximately 12 percent of the accompanying officers were injured in these cases, and 1 percent were killed. An equal number of inmates were injured, with 3 percent being killed. It’s a dangerous and inefficient process on all counts.
Conducting courtroom proceedings directly with inmates using on-site telepresence from within a correctional facility saves money, vastly reduces inmate flight risk and enhances officer/community safety.
Strategic Planning: What to Consider
The built environment of the future cannot be created without the IoE and the efficiencies and new possibilities it brings. IoE is the new infrastructure, extending the value of brick and mortar, and allowing public agencies to meet and anticipate community needs and expectations. New processes and perceptions lead to new questions about best uses of public safety resources and evolving functions and relationships among agencies. While such questions can’t be answered immediately, developing a strategic plan that prepares agencies for technology adoption is the place to start.
In scoping out a path forward, focus on mobility, cloud and security and how the IoE ties them together in ways that are interoperable, scalable and capable of providing robust analytics.
“Leaders in public safety really have to be attuned to what’s happening and what’s possible – what they can do right now and in the future,” says Stewart. “No longer can they just run a department from the operations side – they have to make sure they connect with and understand the type of technology that is going to help them be more efficient and keep officers and the community safer. Technology and the IoE are bringing us closer to the greatest era of community policing we’ve ever seen.”
