Our communities are awash in a rising tide of information generated by the citizens themselves. Globally, 200,000 text messages are being sent this very second.(1) More than 30 million surveillance cameras are capturing video in the U.S alone. Smartphone users – almost half the U.S. and EU population – are uploading videos, photos and social media posts. The challenge for public safety is this: Hidden in this flood of raw data is intelligence that tells you how to deploy your resources… where to predict trouble… and potentially how to save a life.

This is a rich and unprecedented resource, but most agencies today are barely skimming the surface. It’s not enough to simply monitor information as it flows through the community. The hard part is filtering out the noise and transforming what’s left into actionable intelligence. The meaning of "situational awareness" changes when half your citizens are equipped to share live video as events unfold; but one thing that won’t change is the limited human capacity to process information. This is especially true for first responders under stress on the front lines. They are in no position to go hunting for needles in haystacks.

Technology – which created this resource – is our best hope for operationalizing it.

Emerging solutions will enable agencies to catch up with the expectations of their constituents:

• First responders are armed with relevant information sent to rugged devices on their bodies and in their vehicles, enabling them to proceed with intelligence and be ready for what’s next.
• Agencies manage the complexity with solutions that consolidate data from multiple sources, then analyze it to recognize patterns, retrieve relevant facts, and make predictions… giving commanders guidance for mounting effective responses and preventing trouble before it starts.
• The command center connects to the city and its people, collecting information by voice, messaging, photos and video.

This is a radically new environment for public safety, but Motorola Solutions is working on developing the tools to master it. The opportunity before us is to transform the noise into information, the information into intelligence, and ultimately, the intelligence into a safer city.

Bob Schassler is Motorola's senior vice president for Radio Solutions.

Find out more about Transforming Information into Intelligence.

This article was originally posted in ‘Fresh Ideas for Public Safety’

Editors’s note – More key facts to help put this in perspective - nearly 50% of the EU population has a smartphone (2); 7.5 trillion text messages were sent globally in 2012 (3) and the UK alone has 1.85 million surveillance cameras(4).

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Sources:

(1) International Telecommunication Union, 2010
(2) http://mobilenewsblog.co.uk/wp/eu5-pass-50-market-penetration-in-europe/
(3) The Mobile Economy 2013 http://www.atkearney.com/documents/10192/760890/The_Mobile_Economy_2013.pdf
(4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/02/cctv-cameras-watching-surveillance