Reimagining public safety in smart, digitally connected cities
This year at Smart City Expo World Congress 2018, Microsoft will join global leaders to share innovative solutions focused on the digital transformation of cities. This blog is the fourth in a series about how Microsoft provides the intelligent services and trusted platform for partner solutions that empower cities to be more secure, prosperous, and sustainable. Join Microsoft and its partners at SCEWC 2018.
As a growing percentage of the global population gravitates toward urban areas, city leaders face pressure not only to accommodate their needs in terms of mobility, infrastructure, and social care, but also in terms of public safety. These pressures run head-on with the challenge of increasingly constrained resources. In the U.S. alone, more than $100 billion is spent every year on public safety while in the European Union, expenditure on public order and safety averages 1.7% of GDP.
Imagine a world where civic systems are infused with intelligent, safe, and secure cloud technology that enables public safety teams to be better informed and collaborate before, during, and after incidents. In this digitally connected world, public safety teams have the tools needed to:
- Identify crime trends and work with the community and public safety teams to resolve.
- Improve situational awareness and collapse incident response times equipping first responders with details on similar previous emergencies that inform better judgments, save more lives, and ensure situations return to normal as soon as possible.
- Leverage better access to information to improve inter-agency coordination and collaboration.
- Bring together structured and unstructured data in a secure and compliant manner to compile evidence and reconstruct events much faster.
At Microsoft, we’re dedicated to developing the technologies needed to turn these possibilities into reality.
Microsoft technologies are making it possible to turn this vision into a reality
Microsoft’s secure, trusted cloud and intelligent services support the digital transformation of cities focusing on public safety, helping them protect citizen data against unauthorized access, detect cyberattacks and breaches, and respond and adapt to prevent future incidents.
Highly integrated data systems connect the dots between historical information, geo-spatial mapping, connected devices, and more to drive efficient, targeted responses and keep first responders safe. Fire and Emergency New Zealand has upgraded and integrated their platform capabilities across all their fire trucks to improve connectivity and response times. Now they are looking to implement IoT-based technology to connect devices fitted to firefighters’ helmets or boots to monitor vital information such as the quantity of air in their tanks, skin temperature, and GPS locators to track movement.
Cloud-based analytics provide the mobility and scalability needed by public safety agencies to be better informed and collaborate before, during and after incidents. Infusing cloud-based technologies with intelligence further enables public safety teams to gain insight from deep repositories of information putting data to new, productive use. San Diego County Sheriff’s Department utilizes an AI-enabled conversation mobile app, Coptivity, that helps first responders get the information they need faster and improves their situational awareness. Instead of calling dispatch and waiting to get the results of first-level queries such as a license plate check, responders can use Coptivity to provide a response in real-time.
Our partners play a pivotal role in working toward this vision of connected, secure cities. For example, Innodep, a South Korea-based provider of IoT-enabled security solutions, leverages Microsoft Cloud technology to empower municipalities to better protect citizens. To ensure the safety of intellectual property (IP), sensitive data, and employees, Innodep’s cloud-based video solution grants only authorized personnel access to secure facilities. Genetec is also utilizing the speed and flexibility of Microsoft Cloud technology to deliver unified security, public safety, operations, investigative and intelligence solutions designed to protect both citizens and law enforcement.
Connect with us at SCEWC 2018 to learn more about how you can transform public safety
Microsoft provides the trusted cloud platform and intelligent services needed to build more secure, vibrant cities.
To learn more about how Microsoft is empowering public safety teams.
