Photo: Motorola-Solutions
New technology for safer cities
06 November 2014
by Richard Forster
While CCTV cameras can help detect criminals after the act, the latest technology can detect crimes as they happen and put law enforcement officers in place before the suspects have escaped. By Kirsty Tuxford
While all cities may have an emergency number to report crimes–911 in the US, 112 for Europe, Australia and parts of Africa and Asia–what happens if out of fear or simple apathy citizens refuse to use it?
In the US, a recent study reveals that fewer than one in five unlawful shootings are reported. Sadly, the communities most impacted by gun violence are the least likely to call police, with some neighbourhoods calling in gunshots less than 10 percent of the time. Without calls from the public, the police are hamstrung to get to a scene in time to do anything positive other than gather evidence after the fact. Or in the case of guns, after someone is badly injured or dead.
But technology now being used in US cities as well as Brazil, South Africa and Puerto Rico is changing the game–the police have a new set of eyes and particularly ears giving them a real advantage in the war on gun crime.
Imagine a recent scene in Atlantic City, USA, when gunshots were fired in July 2014. No one called the emergency number 911 but police got to the scene almost immediately after the shots, and discovered spent shell casings, a stash of marijuana and US$3,500 in cash. Even better, they apprehended four people in relation to gun crimes and drug offences.
The arrests were all down to a new technology called ShotSpotter, developed by STT, which can inform police in real time when a gun has been fired. Thanks to an array of specialised microphones tuned to detect gunfire, an audio signal is sent to a computer that figures out where a shot took place and police receive a report about a shooting within 45 seconds of it occurring.
In Milwaukee, Police Chief Flynn uses ShotSpotter not only for crime suppression, but for intelligence gathering and the analysis of gunfire patterns. His unit has been identified as one of the leading police forces when it comes to utilising ShotSpotter technology to try and pre-determine the likelihood of gunfire before it happens, rather than just reacting to ShotSpotter’s information and arriving at the scene after the event. “I think the promise of this [technology] is still only just unfolding,” he says.
Eighty cities around the world are now using the technology and SST’s CEO Ralph Clark is evangelical about the impact ShotSpotter can have.
“When law enforcement officials and city leaders work together with their communities to develop a comprehensive approach to attacking gun crime, they are doing their utmost to ensure that their fellow citizens enjoy the basic human right of personal security and quality of life,” says Clark.
It’s easy for a city to deploy this new technology too–there are no specific prerequisites required. And with the cost of installation being directly proportional to the size of the city, it could be an affordable asset for any urban centre with gun crime issues.
The threat of terrorism
As well as having a technical ear to the ground, law enforcement officers are now working with virtual partners in the form of futuristic police cars that constantly scan the number plates of passing cars and are even able to detect when a weapon has been drawn.
“With more information to process and complex user interfaces to manage, staying focused on what is critical can be a challenge, particularly in a patrol vehicle,” explains Paul Steinberg, CTO at Motorola Solutions, which has designed the new high-tech vehicle.
The car scans the immediate environment with automatic number plate recognition and video cameras, tracking suspects on shared street camera feeds into the car, and automating lights, sirens, gun-lock and the radio. On a stop, the car will stream live video to dispatch or backup units over a public safety broadband network (LTE) and it also acts as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, connecting officers to mission critical intelligence.
“This is all controlled with a single tap on a screen or steering wheel, or via voice activated controls, ensuring an officer’s attention remains focused on the street and the job, and not on managing the technology,” says Steinberg.
When dealing with serious crime, including terrorism, the system comes into its own. An officer’s car can approach a suspicious vehicle and the officer will immediately receive an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) alert if its number plate is on the warrant list. The ANPR system can also initiate a records search for the history of the plate owner, revealing whether the vehicle owner is a terrorist suspect, has an arrest history for violent crime, or is known to carry a gun.
Armed with these critical facts, the officer can check the location of other units in the area and call for back-up. He will also be informed of any hazards or nearby sensitive locations, such as utilities, hospitals or schools, which could be a potential terrorist target. Sharing live video with dispatch, this process can also include the marking and sharing of photos in real-time to confirm the identity of the suspect.
“After everything is coordinated and in place, the officer can turn on his lights, starts his video recording system, and pull over the vehicle. As officers safely apprehend the suspect, another can quickly complete and submit the electronic incident report hastening the arrest procedure,” adds Steinberg.
Safety in the face of disaster
But safety in cities is not just about arming the individual first responders with technology; communication between all emergency services and those who manage city infrastructure is essential too. And beyond crime, the latest communications technology can assist cities, which are caught up in natural disasters.
Cities usually have a disaster preparedness plan and provide information to the emergency services, such as supply lists and sample evacuation plans, but Microsoft has developed an Emergency Collaboration Portal through which the public can also find out what to do during a disaster–and how to pick up the pieces after it’s over.
It was during the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in 2010 that Microsoft began to develop cloud-based technology to help connect citizens. Following the disaster, Microsoft partnered with NetHope, a nonprofit organisation specialising in solving technology problems, to build a wireless ‘Internet backbone’ that the government, intergovernmental agencies (such as the United Nations), and nongovernmental agencies could use to coordinate disaster relief.
The portal connects the government with citizens, their loved ones (even if they are out of town), and the media through any web-enabled PC or mobile device. Local disruptions will not affect the connection because the system uses the Windows Azure cloud and using the cloud also means there’s no need for a large data centre investment. It’s simple to use, and the authorities managing the emergency can publish updates without relying on IT staff. The information shared can take the form of alerts, updates, maps, photos, videos, blogs, Facebook messages, Twitter, RSS, and email, with translation into 36 languages.
In the first two months after the Haiti earthquake, Microsoft helped launch OneResponse, a website for interagency collaboration; deployed cloud-computing solutions for Haiti’s government and for organisations working in the country; had Bing and MSN set up pages where people could donate to Haiti; and had the Microsoft Translator team add Haitian Creole to the translator’s languages so that it could be used by aid workers.
Microsoft learned a lot from working in Haiti. “While we can come together at the time, having relationships in advance allowed us to speak directly with the right people at the right time,” says Claire Bonilla, Senior Director of Risk Management & Disaster Response at Microsoft. “When disaster strikes, having relationships already in place means potential solutions are on the table even faster.”
The second lesson Microsoft learned from its Haiti response revolves around the power of the cloud. The team were inspired to develop and innovate new ways of communicating using cloud computing having seen in Haiti that most people don’t have computers but do have mobile phones.
“As you can imagine, when there’s a disaster, the infrastructure of the affected area is wiped out–water, power, Internet,” says Bonilla. “The ability to host a portal from a safe, unimpacted location and to connect into secure collaboration portals and start the flow of information can help millions during an incident.”
While the examples of technological innovation above can assist cities, local governments still need to look at their overall systems management to derive a true benefit. The drive to make cities safer isn’t only about high-tech communications, and technology can only help if cities take a holistic approach to improving public safety.
You can have a high tech car able to detect a crime as it happens but if your city is congested, then you lose the benefits. Knowing when a gun goes off is all very well but the roads must be free-flowing enough so that the police can arrive quickly at the scene. As with the application of smart technologies in general, implementation requires the breakdown of silos and cooperation across different departments if our cities are to deliver real gains in safety.
