Smarter Public Safety: Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities

With rising population levels in cities across the globe and shifting demographics, Public Safety agencies are increasingly challenged to meet their mandates of protecting lives, property and infrastructure.

The accelerating pace of globalization and the rising impact of technological developments are increasing the economic and commercial risks of crime and threats to social order. In many jurisdictions, these challenges are compounded by budgetary constraints. Pressure on law enforcement agencies to use public resources more efficiently is being felt in large cities such as London and Toronto, at the federal level, such as in Poland, and even at the local level, far from large cities. Law enforcement commanders and political and civic leaders are concerned by this combination of factors, because low levels of police resources decrease an agency’s ability to detect crime, which is associated with increased levels of crime.

In response, law enforcement agencies are taking advantage of advances in information and communications technology (ICT) to improve public safety. A critical aspect of this initiative is to capture, process, and share data within and across agencies. Because the variety and sheer volume of data produced annually is increasing exponentially, law enforcement personnel have access to a great deal of raw material to help them detect threats. These efforts to make public safety “smarter” enable enhanced coordination for emergency response teams and advance efforts to protect the public. Yet, even as vast fields of data are becoming better organized and more accessible, it is still relatively difficult for officers and analysts to identify patterns that can be...