Video is Only the Beginning;
Real-Time Crime Centers Offer
Next Step in Proactive Policing
Picture the scene. A group of men are lurking
at the back of a chemical storage warehouse. A
citizen on the way to work captures video of the
scene on his mobile phone camera, calls 9-1-1 and
shares the video with dispatchers. Patrol units are
sent immediately and as they approach, streaming
video from local street cameras show an explosion
engulfing the warehouse in flames. The men run from
the scene. Officers immediately record video of the
fire from their handheld units and call it in, allowing
firefighters en route to view the scene as it evolves.
At the same time, they access up-to-date building
plans on their in-vehicle and handheld computers.
A
s the police call for backup, dispatchers receive a video of the
fleeing suspects taken from a passing city bus. That video,
along with other footage tracking the suspects as they try to
escape, is streamed to all units, helping coordinate operations and
locate, identify and apprehend the suspected arsonists. Later, the
video will be used as evidence at trial.
This is a situation that public safety agencies could encounter
on any particular day. And while it may seem like this is a smooth
transfer of information, multiple pieces of technology have to be
put in place for this to happen in real-time. In police and fire departments around the world, video is rapidly becoming one of the
most important tools for enhancing the safety of first responders,
citizens and the entire community. Deploying video is an effective
way to bring cost-effective security to a neighborhood – or a city.
A well-executed video solution can help spot problems before
they turn into incidents, make the most effective use of staff and
provide compelling evidence at trial. Its visibility can reassure the
public, deter crime and even change behavior. In every part of
the world, public safety agencies are considering the use of more
video throughout their IP networks. By the end of 2013, many industry experts expect that 90 percent of all IP traffic will be video;
experts also predict that video will comprise more than 60 percent
of all mobile IP traffic in the same time frame.
By Tom Gross, Motorola Solutions
In addition to video, other forms of data are streaming in
from virtually unlimited sources. Smartphones, social media, sensors and alarms are giving public safety agencies the
ability to see, hear and do more with less. Yet this abundance
of information comes with an enormous challenge: how do
agencies operationalize all the data that surrounds them?
The key for public safety agencies is to have a solution
in place that brings together information from all the different so urces: video, sensors, alarms, computer-aided dispatch
(CAD) and records processed with analytics to deliver a single,
real-time operational view. In addition, incident and criminal
complaints, arrest records and photographs, national crime
databases, and 9-1-1 call records can also be utilized. A real-time
crime center solution can capture all of this data – which resides
in separate databases – and integrate it for law enforcement in
seconds instead of hours or even days. By integrating multiple
streams of multimedia into one unified view, one sworn officer in
front of monitors in a real-time crime center can support multiple
first responders in the field as an incident develops. Both the technology and applications are giving that officer timely access to
information from myriad sources to help the responder confront
the situation and solve the crime quickly.
A number of public safety agencies have begun making
investments in real-time crime center initiatives to put all the data
to work for them. If proper planning is done upfront, solutions
can be designed to receive information from multiple data sources, process them with real-time analytics and deliver that critical,
consolidated operational view. A new service from Motorola Solutions called Intelligent Data Discovery (IDD) helps consolidate
and analyze real-time key performance indicators and historical
data resulting in actionable, dashboard views of the situation.
Tools such as IDD bring focus to the historical and real-time data
points and are helping public safety officials in Ventura, Calif.
identify crime patterns and trends to drive more effective decisions. The web-based dashboards graphically display real-time
details and the scalable system allows the integration of data from
additional systems such as city operations, fire, public works
and more. “In this resource constrained environment, we have to
find ways to do better with less,” said Ventura Police Chief Ken
Corney. “Technology is going to be at the foundation of how we
are going to achieve success in the future. By using IDD to put real-time information and crime analysis into the hands of the officers in the field, we can provide that information to our patrol ofFALL 2013 | California Police Chief
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