#WednesdayWalkabout Series: IoT Changing the Public Safety Landscape

Co-authored with Kacey Carpenter

Technology Changing the Game

The industry continues to change, reflecting both emerging approaches to delivering innovative IT solutions, and also the faster paced, more complex environment faced by government officials. These topics share a common theme – citizen expectations continue to rise. Government leaders must be agile enough to adapt to changing circumstances and to rapidly deliver safer and smarter outcomes for their cities and countries. Considering what will be valuable and critical for success for effectively managing in the digital era, the public sector is increasingly turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) and the immense opportunities it will provide to turn data into insights and drive highly relevant and compelling outcomes.

The IoT has been increasingly influencing the public safety realm. Thanks to the plethora of connected devices that can collect real-time data – such as body-worn cameras – it’s possible to begin leveraging the real-time, actionable data this ecosystem delivers, enabling public-safety professionals to help keep citizens safer and communities more secure. By harnessing IoT technologies for public safety, first responders and law enforcement can more easily respond to emergencies and even prevent situations from turning into emergencies in the first place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO5uK47FKd0

Real-time police operations at IoT World Forum in Dubai

In this week’s post, our digital citizen is back from the future. Our citizen was fortunate enough to jump a week ahead to this year’s IoT World Forum, set to take stage on Dec 6-8 in Dubai. The visit was to witness the demonstration of a solution built from the ground up and customized for the Dubai municipality.

Davra Networks, Cisco, Telecommunications Systems (TCS), and local partner Emircom will demonstrate a comprehensive, real-time public safety operations solution built for and demonstrated in Dubai. The solution – capping another great collective win for the Cisco and Davra team – is designed from the ground up for the Dubai police force and the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). This solution provides live incident monitoring, incorporating data from numerous sensors, including video cameras and sensors on vehicles that send telematics data to the police command and control center. It outfits officers with body cameras, communication gear, and sensors that monitor the movements and health of each individual member of the police force.

The solution built by TCS, a gateway manufacturer and a Cisco partner runs on top of Davra Networks’ RuBAN application enablement platform. Underneath the hood, the solution relies on IOx, Cisco’s operating system, which runs on TCS’ Lynx Rugged Vehicle Routers. The solution uses RuBAN for data processing, dashboards, visualization and gateway management.

This IoT solution from Davra Networks, Cisco and TCS is completely integrated and while meeting the current needs of the Dubai police force and RTA, it is also forward-looking, anticipating the needs of the public safety environment for the foreseeable future. Municipalities and organizations can implement these types of solutions in stages or by deploying different components of the solution for various teams of public safety officials. Dima Tokar, MachNation’s Chief Technology Officer, accurately captures the importance of the comprehensive and modular approach, stating: “These types of IoT technology must be modular. We commonly see public and private organizations implement one set of IoT components and layer-on additional modules as their needs evolve and grow.”

Together with Cisco, the two firms and the local partner put together a secure, comprehensive, modular, and future-proof solution for Dubai’s police and RTA that will enable real-time monitoring of police and transportation operations throughout the municipality.

Next Stop

Stay tuned for next Wednesday’s post to discover more information about the movers and shakers at this year’s IoT World Forum in Dubai. And be sure to check back later in the month for the #WednesdayWalkabout series finale.

We invite you to be a part of the conversation by using the hashtag #WednesdayWalkabout and by following @CiscoGovt on Twitter. Additionally, you can click here and register now to get your questions answered on how to become the next digital community.

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