When emergencies and security threats impact a community, communication between public safety agencies requires rapid, agile and seamless responses. But with many police, fire and EMS departments in the United States still working within that in-between world of analog and digital solutions, the dizzying pace of technology expansion can be daunting. Unlike some developing nations around the world, and even in Western Europe where they have not experienced the technology evolution that has been seen in the U.S., there has been a technology leap forward straight into the digital world without enduring the same growing pains.
“Public safety officers have lived in that analog world for so long -- that binary on and off environment. But on the flip side when you look at other industries in what they have done to become part of the digital age, they have already gone through the progression. We in public safety are now realizing the technology benefits derived from this analog to digital environment. It has just been slower processes,” says Mark Fletcher, Corporate Solutions Technologist, and Chief Architect for Worldwide Public Safety Solutions at Avaya, who works in that public safety space where the lack of tax revenues and cuts in federal UASI grants have made the mission to protect and serve even more difficult.
However, that mission to serve the public has been a rallying cry for dozens of municipalities around the country that are concentrating efforts and directing resources towards expanding the technologies that enable sophisticated unified emergency communication. As IP technology begins to permeate public safety, the ability to quickly and safely transmit voice, data and video information across agency networks is crucial. Organizations like the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) have encouraged the development and worked to establish a baseline of operating standards for all public safety answering points (PSAPs), which are the call-takers and dispatchers who field emergency 911 calls around the country. The implementation of these Emergency Services Internet Protocol Networks (ESInets) ensures service quality and consistency for public safety agencies that rely on resilient and redundant communications. These ESInets are also essential for the development of critical Next Generation 911 (NG911) solutions.
Fletcher and his peers are working towards a day when government services, public safety and emergency communication and notification require less manpower and provide more sophisticated artificial intelligence when dealing with citizens. He believes that is one of the key building blocks for tomorrow’s Smart City.
When booking or updating his flight status when flying with United Airlines, Fletcher says the customer service interaction is totally digital; from buying his ticket to selecting his seat, to tweaking his itinerary. He says this approach serves him and the company well. He never talks to a human yet receives every service he demands quickly and efficiently over the phone.
“This lack of human interaction happens because we are using all the technology that is available. That hasn’t happened in public safety before. But there has never been a better use case for it than public safety,” admits Fletcher. “NENA has been doing a great job with trying to manage the NG911 program and it has been kind of a beast to wrangle. Because it is sort of like drinking from the fire hose since there is so much information that comes into 911 and emergency call centers. It is this huge elephant that has to be eaten one bite at a time. The challenge I see with NG911 solutions and public safety is the operational model. While that model has changed over the years, it still gets bogged down”
Fletcher recalls that his first job out of high school in the early 1980s was as an emergency dispatcher in a small town, where he used a 20-line landline phone system to field emergency and police calls.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time it was pure boredom, but when it hit the fan, it hit hard. And I remember sitting there during those midnight shifts thinking there has to be some way to know where my units are. Got to be some way to know who is calling me as I would take out this pad and pencil and write down the incidents.
“There had to be a better way. But at that time the internet didn’t exist. Computers certainly weren’t anywhere close to the speed and functionality they are today. I had a big old 3270 green screen IBM mainframe terminal that I could do motor vehicle lookups on and NCIC criminal background checks. But as far as taking calls and doing my job interacting with the public, it was pen and paper. That was it,” he recalls.
Fletcher says that when he goes back to that very same center today, the scenario is different, yet the same.
"There are four people answering calls and computers all over the place. But the phone still rings and they still pick it up. And even though they have a little more information, they are still doing that same old job, ‘911, what is your emergency?’”
What has changed, according to Fletcher, is that the dispatchers now have assistive technologies that make the process more streamlined and manageable. But he stresses that departments have to create and implement the policies and procedures to make it all work.
“When you come from that legacy environment you can turn on the fire hose, but if you are not ready for it you will drown. So NENA has spent a lot of time developing those policies and procedures. In this defined environment, while you may expand capabilities, it still has maintained its binary status. You can, however, get a lot more done if those policies are in place and you know how to work the technology.” he says.
But it is not just emergency calls and 911 communications that Fletcher stresses that is benefitting from the expansion of digital technology in the public safety space. The march towards the Smart Cities concept also works hand-in-hand with the Safe and Secured Cities movement in public safety and the expansion of municipal video surveillance. Fletcher and his Avaya partners have worked with several Public/Private Partnership initiatives around the country and North America helping deliver innovative network environments for cities.
“Information is power and today we are in a very visual environment. Being able to extract video data from a bank, a business or a shopping mall is crucial, and it is not easy to transport that payload across the data network especially when you have lots of cameras. That is where a new technology needed to be developed to make this data transfer happen in a more ubiquitous format. So the IEEE’s standard of shortest path bridging came into play to allow this multi-tasked video traffic, which could be difficult to transport, a little easier to move across the network,” explains Fletcher. “Now this data can be made available to public safety and will be revolutionary. I’ve got the feed; I’ve got the transport, so now I can consume that video. That by far will also be the next big evolution in NG911.”
Fletcher shares a use -case scenario that demonstrates how enterprise-level users who are making 911 calls like banks, hotels or corporate centers, can interact with public safety agencies in a more succinct way.
“Look, I know these types of emergency calls can get very confusing in the big public safety picture. For example, we’ve got a bank robbery taking place and the teller behind the counter presses the silent alarm. That starts an NG911 session between the bank and public safety ESInet. Part of that session says there is video available. So the dispatcher can start pulling video feeds in from the bank lobby to the PSAP and see that this is indeed a real incident occurring. In addition to that, since this video is now part of the ESInet, it can be pushed out to the SWAT team that now has eyes inside the bank. I have to be able to bridge those networks dynamically, securely and invincibly,” says Fletcher. “With the shortest- path-bridging technology, and what we call hyper-segmentation, it allows for this incredible flow of data from origination network to the end-consumption network. That is what is going to make NextGen and enhanced video a reality. I’ve got the generators of the content, the consumers of the content, and the network that can transport the content.”
About the Author: Steve Lasky is a 30-year veteran of the security industry. He is the editorial and conference director for SouthComm Security Media Group, publishers of Security Technology Executive and Security Dealer & Integrator magazines, SecurityInfoWatch.com and Secured Cities events. He can be reached at [email protected].
