In this blog series, Julian Foster reports on the launch of our UK Innovation Centre – sharing perspectives from senior executives on the future of Public Safety.

Eduardo Conrado, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Motorola Solutions, set the scene by defining the wider technology trends that are influencing our future vision for public safety and how these will impact officers around the World.

Top 6 technology trends that will influence public safety

1. Smarter IoT Technologies. Not just within our homes, vehicles, connected cities, and infrastructure, but also from wearables on our Police Officers and Firefighters. More and more, you’ll see body-worn sensors providing valuable intelligence back to the Command Centre.
2. Information Overload. Police officers and firefighters require “eyes up, hands free”. There’s no excuse for distraction. With more data available, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play an important role. Machine Learning will ensure only relevant situational insight is delivered to officers – at precisely the right time.
3. Modality Interacting with Information. Right-now we’re used to interacting with data through touch – but as we enter the next generation of interface, it’s voice that will become a key modality. This is already happening in our homes, if you think of voice-activated assistants such as Amazon Echo or Google Home.
4. Contextual Awareness. The importance of “who, what, where” and using that data to change the modality of how information is transmitted. How we interact with technology is going to become very important.
5. Consistency Across Platforms. Wherever in the car, on the beat, at the station, or in an emergency situation – officers will need consistent delivery and flow of information regardless of what platform or interface they are using.
6. Evolving Deployment Architecture. Whether data is stored on-premise, in the cloud, or delivered to The Edge, the exact architecture required varies per country. It’s only with this level of granularity that you can develop truly effective solutions to match the needs of Public Safety professionals around the World..

When we think about these wider trends, and combine them with observations from our customers – there’s a real opportunity for unparalleled levels of collaboration, situational awareness and productivity for public safety professionals of the future.

Sometimes a Customer Can’t Tell You What They Need, But They’ll Show You
Great products are not born from sitting in a lab. We have researchers whose job it is to “live” with our customers. Ride along with them, just observing, for 1000s of hours. Getting to fully appreciate what problems they have on a daily basis. We then look at what technology could do to help that. It’s only with this deep understanding that we can create technology solutions that truly address the needs of officers on the front line.

Designing for Moments of Terror
When we think about our design philosophy at Motorola Solutions, we talk about High Velocity Human Factors (HVHF) – designing for moments of terror. In that moment, a human brain has very little ability to process information – you only process basic properties such as colour, and your field of vision narrows. When a Police Officer is in this type of situation, context becomes very important. Is an officer doing a regular traffic stop? Sitting in his vehicle looking at information? Or on an active foot chase? Context is key when driving information out to the field.

As you look at the situation that each customer is in, you need to ask how can technology help to give an ideal user experience? And then design to that end point.

A Day in the Life of a Police Officer
There’s no “typical” when it comes to a day in the life of a Police Officer. But on the whole, we see that around 60% of time is spent on proactive policing, 15% on incident response, and 25% post incident (paperwork). If we can digitise as much admin as possible then that 25% will shrink to give officers more time to spend proactively fighting crime. We can then support officers with solutions that improve collaboration, and use AI to help predict crime. Then for during the incident, we can develop technologies that provide better insights directly to officers.

Future Edge Experience
When we think of our customers, we no longer think of one or two devices in the belt and on the chest. But actually, an eco-system of devices. At the heart of it you have a hub which is either a radio or an LTE unit – connected with a set of sensors around the officer’s body. These sensors may have different interfaces such as voice, augmented reality, or heads up displays. Video, not only for image capture, but more importantly to analyse and then trigger an action based on what’s happened. When we talk about audio, it’s not going to be just a modal of communication or a computational interface – but also using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to analyse and either inject a bot or capture anomalies.

Today’s Connected Police Officer
Five years ago, the Motorola Solutions development team considered what the connected Police officer of the future might look like – with the combination of TETRA and broadband networks, personal area network and key wearable technologies. We added biometrics and the ability to capture heart rate. We connected sensors and accelerometers to guns and other devices worn on the belt. So as the gun gets drawn, it triggers a video camera to capture and send an image back to the Command Centre. We put smart glasses on the officer, so based on the context – if they’re in an emergency situation with gun drawn – the glasses automatically start capturing images. While smart glasses enable the Command Centre to push intelligence out to the officers and display details such as information based on licence plate number etc. About 90% of what we futurecast back then, is already going into our product roadmap.

Imagine a World 5 Years From Now
Last year we took another look into the future. The person, the vehicle and the drone will become a single unit. Working in unison, they’ll all be connected in the field and to the Command Centre. The vehicle will not only be a mode of transportation but also a partner – becoming a computational platform that analyses information in real-time.

When it comes to the officer we see biometric sensors and communication capabilities being distributed around the officer’s body in a single wearable. Charging, communication, and data components will all be combined. Augmented reality and multiple cameras – not just to capture video, but to automatically analyse the surrounding area as officers walk around and trigger an action based on what’s happening. Eduardo and his team are testing all of these technologies right now, so watch this space.

In my next blog, we’ll take a closer look at these innovative solutions, and consider how they’ll impact the working lives of Public Safety professionals in the future.

Julian Foster is Global Co-Lead for the Social Media Center of Excellence at Motorola Solutions.

Connect with Julian on LinkedIn

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, @MotSolsEMEA, on Twitter.

Critical Communications MENA 2017, 25-26 September 2017, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

CCMENA is now in its 5th year and this year’s event will again draw critical communications professionals from across the region.

We are a gold sponsor of the event and you will find us exhibiting on Booth B6 as well as presenting during the two-day, free-to-attend, conference.

Our focus this year is Mobilising Intelligence...

We know that data has the potential to create safer cities, thriving communities, and more efficient and effective operations. But the power of the data is unleashed when it’s converted into actionable intelligence, and is in the hands of those who need it, when they need it, so they can make the best informed decisions when and where it matters most. To do this, you need mobility. Mobile Intelligence harnesses data by unifying applications, networks, devices and services to transform critical operations and work processes.

Let me bring you up to speed with what you can expect in more detail...

Our conference speakers will be contributing to some very topical discussions:

• Monday 25 Sep. - 11am - Kiran Vaya, Director, Pre-Sales & Solutions, Broadband & Smart Public Safety, takes part in the panel discussion: 'What part can the region play in pushing the global critical communications industry forward?'
• Monday 25 Sep. - 4pm - Kiran Vaya  on 'Cybersecurity in Next Generation Public Safety Networks'
• Monday 25 Sep. - 12.05pm - Philip Bond, Account Director, on 'Gateway to the Future - How to make LMR, LTE and Broadband Technologies Interoperate'

In the exhibition, on stand B6, as well as having industry experts on-hand to answer your questions, we will be showing a set of solutions that are critical elements of our mobile intelligence framework: a set of software and services, platforms and devices that span multiple networks and enable communication interoperability, seamless information sharing and collaboration. Here are some highlights:

• Purpose Built Devices - our TETRA, MOTOTRBO™, ASTRO 25, and LTE portfolio of devices have been designed to meet the needs of mission critical communications across a variety of public safety and commercial situations and environments. We will have a selection of devices and accessories on show including TETRA radios, ASTRO 25 radios, DMR radios, LTE devices and Body Worn Cameras.
• High Performance Networks – talk to us about our range of TETRA networks including DIMETRA Express (one-box, single-site) and DIMETRA X Core – our new fully scalable system; our DMR Tier 3 compliant MOTOTRBO CAPACITY MAX System; as well as Portable LTE Infrastructure – the LXN 500 ultra portable.
• Mixed Reality Demonstration - we will show how an immersive experience enhances situation awareness with this demo of a Firefighter Commander getting partly immersed in an incident using Mixed-Reality Technology with virtual reality and video feeds.
• Seamless Collaboration over Borderless Networks - we show how you can connect any device to any network and enable seamless workgroup collaboration using our WAVE interoperability platform.
• Next Generation Control Room Systems – see how Our Control Room Systems, coupled with our CommandCentral smart public safety solutions, maximise your operational effectiveness.
• Maximising your System Availability and Equipment Uptime – see our comprehensive approach to safeguarding your critical communications.

I look forward to seeing you there.

If you can’t make it to the show or you want to keep up-to-date with our news and activity around CCMENA you can bookmark our microsite – www.motorolasolutions.com/ccmena or catch up with our YouTube Playlist

Patrick Fitting is Senior Sales Director, Middle East & Central Asia for Motorola Solutions

Patrick is on LinkedIn

Follow #TETRA #CCMENA and @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter.

Earlier this year I attended Critical Communications Europe, a conference focused on educating end-users and operators on the trends and evolving technologies in mission critical communications, especially TETRA. My mission at the show was to increase cybersecurity awareness. LMR systems like TETRA are no longer entirely closed networks or immune from cyber threats. If anything, serving as a mission-critical, communication component for government and public safety agencies, they have a propensity of gaining the attention of hackers. Government entities are being attacked at twice the rate of other industries across the board.

My goal was to raise awareness about the importance of proactive cybersecurity measures for LMR systems with a live hacking demonstration. From my demos, here were the common insights I gleaned from the LMR end-users and system operators I met:

Cybersecurity education is still needed. Only a small subset of those I spoke to had a sound understanding of their LMR system’s level of risk. Others were aware that their systems are now vulnerable to cyber threats. However, they were not knowledgeable of how their system can be compromised; their risk posture; or how to protect their systems from and respond to cyber intrusions.

Hackers aren’t that sophisticated. Most of the individuals I spoke to weren’t aware that you don’t have to be a brilliant hacker to create something that can comprise a system. Without a great deal of knowledge, hackers can create an exploit that can work on a LMR system. Everything needed is available through a few clicks of the button. A conference attendee that person I spoke to said, “I had no idea it was that simple!”

Chaos and disruption is the end goal. During my demo, I reviewed various examples of the actions hackers can take once in their systems. I explained how a hacker can upload code to overwrite operating software files to disrupt the network, launch web browser that redirect system users to a malicious website, and execute commands that can remotely shutdown and reboot a system server. Most system assaults are directed at disrupting communication at some level.

Most successful attacks are based on known vulnerabilities. The “A Ha!!” moment came when I pointed out that most attacks are based on known system vulnerabilities – 75% according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. However, the good news is that these vulnerabilities have patches that can be applied to systems. Security patching is one of the first and important steps anyone can take to mitigate cybersecurity threats.

From my conversations at the show, the end-users and operators I spoke to are more aware that their systems are vulnerable to cyber intrusions. However, it’s important that everyone understands their system’s risk posture and how to proactively address cyber threats. There isn’t room for complacency when safeguarding a mission-critical, LMR system. While there are many strategies and options available, there is one action everyone should take to mitigate cyber threats—regular security patching. For our customers, we offer this service with rigour by pre-testing and validating all required patches to ensure they don’t cause any disruption when installed. If you don’t patch, you’re at greater risk to get hacked. Why let that happen? Learn more at motorolasolutions.com/cybersecurity.

Paul Hill is Security Services Delivery Lead

Paul is on LinkedIn

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, #Cybersecurity and @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter.

Once viewed with a great deal of scepticism, the public cloud is now mainstream. Today, more than 80% of UK organisations have adopted at least one cloud service (source: Cloud Industry Forum). Yet, despite the growing adoption, fear, doubt and uncertainty persist around cloud deployments.  Given the potentially transformative benefits of the cloud, I think it is important that we challenge the myths and get to the facts. Let’s take a look at some of the common myths.

#1 There are more data breaches in the cloud
According to the Spring 2014 Alert Logic Cloud Security Report, both on-premise and cloud hosting providers (CHP) saw a dramatic increase in vulnerability scans from 2012 to 2013, with CHPs having a slightly greater increase. But depending on the type of attack, such as malware and botnets, on-premise deployments were far more susceptible.

Source: Alert Logic Cloud Security Report, 2014

#2 Cloud is less secure than on-premise solutions
Public cloud providers benefit from economies of scale and investment resources to deploy and maintain cutting edge security technology. For example, most cloud service providers have better physical security for their datacentres than most companies have for their own facilities. Across both security and compliance, global public cloud providers are able to invest massive amounts of resources that exceed what any one individual organisation can realistically deploy.

#3 You lose control of your data when it is in the cloud
Cloud vendors are not all the same. Terms and conditions and contracts setup between the consumer and the cloud service provider must affirm that you maintain ownership of all data that is ingested or generated from using the service. Furthermore, the contract should prohibit access, sharing or sub-licensing of your data for any reason other than it being used in conjunction with your application subscriptions and comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which goes into effect on 25 May 2018.

#4 The cloud is going to cost you significantly more
Cloud deployments reduce operational expense by minimising your need for complex IT resources, connectivity and infrastructure.  For example, compliance with GDPR requirements can be much easier with the cloud, with established service providers offering sophisticated and built-in controls. Also, when it comes to supporting workloads classified as UK OFFICIAL, the leading public cloud providers can readily support a cloud environment that aligns with the National Cyber Security Cloud Security Principles and Center for Internet Security (CIS) Critical Security Controls guidelines.

#5 Your data is centrally located, increasing the risk of data loss
Centralised data actually minimises the attack surface area and decreases the touchpoints for threat actors. The leading cloud infrastructure providers offer redundancy to ensure a single zone failure does not result in loss of data. In general, objects should be redundantly stored on multiple devices across multiple facilities in a data centre region.

By harnessing the cloud, you can benefit from a flexible data platform where security, compliance and performance can all be configured to meet specific service requirements and is easily upgraded to keep pace with future requirements. Moving to cloud-based data management solutions can help you manage and store large volumes of sensitive data with more control, better security, and greater flexibility to enhance your organisation’s capabilities.

Tunde Williams is Head of Field and Solutions Marketing for Europe, Middle-East and Africa

Tunde is on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #Cloud

Thousands of articles, videos and blogs have been written about the importance of software security patching. The simple fact is that most cyber-attacks are based on known system and software vulnerabilities. Patching can correct these vulnerabilities and safeguard your network from intrusions.

And yet around the world, many of us fail to make security patching a priority. This became eminently clear recently in the largest cyber-attack ever. A ransomware known as “WannaCry” resulted in more than 45,000 attacks in at least 100 countries over a 48-hour window. Former Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin stated, “The reason this is hitting so many computers at once is they [the hackers] discovered a vulnerability in the most popular operating system in the world...in Microsoft Windows.”

Companies that were up to date on their patching were not affected by the cyber attack that shocked not only private organisations such as telecom giant Spain's Telefonica, but also government and public safety mission-critical entities such as hospitals and clinics across the United Kingdom and the Andhra Pradesh police in India.

“The fact that so many organisations were vulnerable to this was quite a surprise,” said cyber expert and CEO of Capital Alpha Security in the United Kingdom Matt Tait. “This patch came out three months ago."  Yes, Microsoft did announce a fix for the vulnerability, but not everyone acted or even took note when the announcement was made. Some were unaware. Others had budget or resource constraints or simply waited to address due to other priorities.

The main lesson from WannaCry outbreak? Don't delay patching - ever. The political, public relationship and most important, civilian ramifications are enormous, especially for mission-critical organisations that depend on sophisticated IP-based communication networks. Our dedicated security experts help our customers mitigate cybersecurity threats with validated security patches through our Security Update Service (SUS). We analysed, vetted and released the patch which addressed the WannaCry vulnerability to our customer base shortly after its initial release by Microsoft. We installed it and others for customers who opt for remote security patching and encourage those with our self-install patching option to do so immediately and reboot servers if you already haven’t.

The good news is that a security researcher inadvertently discovered a 'kill switch' which has halted the spread of the initial worm that took the world by surprise. In our modern world of cyber-threats, none of us can afford to be complacent any longer. Security patching is one of the core, fundamental steps needed to safeguard your system from cyber threats. For more information, visit our cybersecurity services page.

Paul Hill is Security Services Delivery Lead

Paul is on LinkedIn

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, #Cybersecurity and @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter.

The evolving world of social is always presenting new challenges (such as ever-changing algorithms), but opening windows on new opportunities for Public Safety too.

Last month, I was fortunate to attend the Social Media Internet Law Enforcement conference (SMILE) – hosted by Chief Luna from Long Beach Police Department. The event saw law enforcement professionals from around the world share their experiences of social media in community policing, intelligence, and emergency management.

Here’s my top 10 tips for effective use of social media in Public Safety:

1. Engage. Engage. Engage.
Think of social media as a conversation with your community. Remember, it’s not just about outbound (no one likes the person at a dinner party who only talks about themselves). Read every comment, it’s important to people – even a “like” is acknowledgement. Being on social and being active on social are quite different things.

2. Build up credit with the “Community Bank”
Building trust is absolutely vital, but takes time, and it’s something you have to earn. It’s important to back up your words on social media with actions in the community. You have to interact physically, emotionally, and socially.

3. Controlled transparency
A lack of transparency breeds mistrust. So open your doors and share behind the scenes tours of the great work that Public Safety professionals do every day. Of course you can’t share everything, citizens understand that – but that’s what makes the moments you do share special.

4. Create a connection
You need to build relationships to rise above the noise of social media.Tell a story that people can relate to, in conversational language people can easily understand. Don’t be afraid of using humour. We’re all human after all.

5. Authenticity trumps production any day
Authentic content will always resonate more strongly with your community than highly polished “Steven Spielberg” masterpieces. Keep it real – you simply don’t need expensive cameras and advanced editing skills to communicate effectively on video.

6. Establish a social media policy for your agency
There’s no “one size fits all” when it comes to social media policy, but key considerations should be; citizen conduct, employee conduct, employee access, acceptable use, content, terms for engagement (when would you delete, hide, leave alone, or engage with a post?), security, data storage, account management, monitoring, listening, measurement, legal issues, crisis escalation, trusted media influencers. It’s also useful to define what success looks like (don’t get hung up on follower numbers, shift your focus towards engagement). But don’t force people to use social. Use willing volunteers.

7. Make friends with social media algorithms
There’s no point in trying to fight against the algorithms that control content display on social media platforms. Adapting is the only option. The subject of social media algorithms is vast, but my top tips would be; always share relevant, high quality content, actively engage with followers, tag relevant accounts in your posts, pay attention to analytics to learn what types of posts are working, seriously consider how you’re hosting video content.

8. Release your inner data scientist with a multi-purpose intelligence hub
Social media has changed our perception and understanding of what intelligence is and who’s responsible for it. Intelligence is useful information that can help inform a decision. But it’s also non-useful information that can help form an opinion. With social media being so immediate it’s essential that you stay in front of the “story”.

Listening and monitoring is absolutely key. Set up passive monitoring (e.g. general keywords such as “riot), and active monitoring (e.g. specific keywords such names of gangs). Set alerts when thresholds are met. Clearly define social media roles for times of crisis. It’s also important to set up listening streams to identify the topics concerning your community.

9. Silence isn’t always golden
Don’t go dark in times of emergency. You must keep the conversation going with your community – even if you explain that the information you’re sharing is preliminary. Get in front of the message, and don’t let negativity build.

10. You can’t win them all
There’ll always be some people where you can’t change their mind in 140 characters – no matter how hard you try. Don’t take it personally! For every negative interaction on social, there’s a 1,000 positive ones around the corner. And not every post will be applicable to everyone. The harder you “try” and create something that will go viral – the more unlikely it will happen. Learn from your experiences, and always be prepared to publicly admit when you make a mistake – people will thank you for it. There’s no room for egos on social media.

I’d like to leave you with one “bonus” tip, check out this road safety video from Indiana State Trooper John Perrine. It’s living proof that humour and authenticity will always come out top:

Julian Foster is Global Co-Lead for our Social Media Centre of Excellence.

Connect with Julian on LinkedIn

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Useful Resources for Social Media in Public Safety

One Million Tweet Map (real-time crisis mapping)

College of Policing “Use of social media to monitor large scale events”

International Association of Chiefs of Police “2016 Law Enforcement Use of Social Media Survey Report”

Association of Chief Police Officers “Guidelines on the safe use of the internet and social media by police officers and police staff”

College of Policing “Engagement and Communication”

IACP Center for Social Media