Microsoft

Keeping Our Cities and Communities Safe

A common operating picture and real-time information are critical for enabling first responders to provide a proactive, coordinated, collaborative and informed response to protect the citizens they serve.

Over the past decade, challenges to public order, malicious use of social media, the advent of cyber-crime, and increasing natural and man-made emergencies and disasters have underscored the vital role police, fire and rescue, mountain and sea rescue, and civil defense officers play in increasing the safety of people and the security of the communities they serve.​

Due to first responders operating in this complex and ever-changing working environment, digital transformation will be essential to maximize their operational effectiveness and efficiency. 

Agencies will need to enable remote working and facilitate cross agency collaboration. First responders can best mitigate the risks of local emergencies and national disasters when they have access to a common, dynamic operational picture and real-time intelligence which can collectively help them plan, manage, and make informed and timely decisions from anywhere to enable them to respond to man-made and natural disasters in both urban and rural areas. When first responders can communicate and collaborate in real time, both within and between crews and organizations, they are better prepared to coordinate their responses and act in a timely manner and they enhance their ability to save lives and mitigate damage to property and infrastructure.

Public safety and justice agencies must hold themselves responsible for delivering trusted and secure services to build community trust and engagement. Agencies will be expected to secure information, protect infrastructure and ensure regulatory compliance.

Microsoft and our partner cloud and mobile solutions such as Mobile Patrol, Video Management, Call Centres (PSAP), GIS, Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management Systems, together with Data/ AI and IOT technologies such as body-warn cameras, CCTV, drones and sensors can significantly help improve operational effectiveness and efficiency for first responders and law enforcement.

On-premises and cloud-based solutions, enabled by technology from Microsoft and its partners, help coordinate response and enable real-time information sharing across agencies, breaking down silos, enhancing  real-time communication and collaboration, and deepening citizen interaction to share intelligence and proactively accelerate intelligence-led lifecycles.

Furthermore, in the advent of social media and mobile apps, first responders can both receive immediate insights from the public as well as using these latest technology mediums to send out notifications and mass warning alerts to the public in both urban and rural areas.

Unified communications technology can help to automate the management and sharing of inbound incident-based information across multiple agencies. It can empower staff from multiple agencies, assembled for incident response operations, with the familiar tools they use to support their other daily operations. The broad use of Microsoft technology across agencies provides a level of familiarity with solutions to help ensure that responders can leverage the capabilities they rely on every day.

Another important consideration is to minimize learning time for responders and operators by providing familiar communication and collaboration tools that assist rather than impede effective response. Furthermore, first responders can share information with enhanced-security and mobile features to collaborate in real-time within and between multiple agencies, as well as on route and at the scene of the incident.

For additional information please contact Kirk Arthur or go online and visit our worldwide government website.