A key evolution of intelligence is needed to combat insecurity.
by Ivan Kraljevic*
To speak of effective combating crime and helping citizens is to describe one of the greatest challenges of governments that seek to transform themselves into "smart cities" of the twenty-first century. To advance on this path, cities must prioritize the use of high-impact information and communication technologies (ICTs) to ensure one of the guiding axes of economic development in cities, and a fundamental human right that must be guaranteed to people, security.
Just as crime in a city does not rest and takes advantage of any time to act, the cameras, officers, radios, sources of information and other resources of a city must be alert and operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but what is the use of so much information if it is not interconnected intelligently?
For example, Mexico City is full of information that could be the key to becoming a safe city, but it is useless if this information is not interconnected and is not processed intelligently.
The so-called Command, Control and Communication Centers (C4), which today are known as Command, Control, Computing, Communications and Citizen Contact Centers of the CDMX (C5) are places where traditionally public security agencies passively monitor what happens, emergency calls are coordinated and resources are dispatched to solve problems as soon as possible.
However, according to studies by Motorola Solutions, it is estimated that 84% of law enforcement agencies worldwide still use spreadsheets to do their crime analysis[1], which represents the use of unreliable and very vulnerable basic tools that fail to reach the level of depth or accuracy required by security activities. as well as poor protocols to anticipate or prevent crime.
Additionally, as an example in the region, we have the case of the Unique Emergency Number or 911 of Mexico City, in which more false emergency calls are currently received than real ones, every day. This demonstrates the urgent need to educate citizens responsibly, but also gives scale of how the response capacity of operators, elements and systems of the service centers is further hindered in the efficient management of real calls / events, which causes loss of time and waste of resources always limited.
From a practical vision of smart cities, the answer is simple: the C5 need to be transformed into Next Generation Control Centers, adding strategic coordination as a differentiating element, which bases its decision-making on data analysis and provides a complete real-time monitoring of each situation.
Next Generation Control Centers magnify human capabilities by achieving end-to-end situational reconnaissance to understand the scenario and coordinate tactical operations with efficient assistance and reporting from the crime scene. This requires, without a doubt, a solid technological platform of very complete and robust digital communications under open global standards with the ability to protect the traffic of these sensitive communications.
Thanks to advances in information systems and artificial intelligence (AI), it is possible to add greater capabilities to take advantage of video analytics algorithms, heat maps, facial recognition, motion sensors, geolocation and mobile database query to analyze and prioritize in seconds all the data and thus "predict" where an event is most likely to occur. In this way, the elements of reaction available at the police level are better focused just where they are required by the citizens.
According to observations from Motorola Solutions, the success factors to integrate Projects of Next Generation Control Centers such as those of the Detroit Police Department, the Investigative Police in Chile or the Kissimmee Police Department, are summarized in three main areas: 1) put the human factor as the most important resource for decision making, from there the needs of the different public security positions may derive; 2) ensure a technological architecture specialized in Next Generation Control Centers, even thinking about new managed services and maintenance schemes that make budgets profitable and 3) the unification of communications in combination with legacy technologies should not be forgotten. If ecosystems are created, integrating other government agencies, coordination benefits and capacities are shared using economies of scale.
Next Generation Control Centers are tailor-made projects that require experience and knowledge, whether for a large city or for small cities. Having the right advice will make the road easier and, above all, will give greater chances of success to our security forces to protect the citizens who so urgently demand it.
[1] Discover new crime patterns hidden in your data. Motorola Solutions Study 2018.
* Ivan Kraljevic, safe cities expert at Motorola Solutions.
