Technology vital to ensuring public safety in Asia Pacific, says new survey

The latest safe cities survey of high-level executives and senior government officials across Asia Pacific reveals that 95 percent of respondents thought technology was either ‘very important’ or ‘important’ in ensuring public safety in realising the vision of smart cities across the region.

“The survey results highlight that many Asia Pacific countries are looking to implement technology solutions that can have a meaningful, measurable impact on public safety,” commented Tony Field, Senior Director of Social Innovation for Asia Pacific at Hitachi Data Systems that undertook the survey. “While a willingness to invest in such solutions is apparent among respondents, the main barrier appears to be a failure to adopt an aligned and integrated approach to safety initiatives, which would allow cities to create a single holistic view of crime in their cities.”

Technology is clearly impacting on the safety of cities with governments under constant pressure to use the latest solutions to reduce crime and ease the lives of their citizens.

The survey was taken by delegates at the Safe Cities Asia conference in Singapore, where government representatives, agencies, and key municipal leaders from Asia Pacific discussed public security and safety challenges.

Meanwhile 44 percent expect their government to invest more than US$100 million in public safety projects over the next two years. Of those investments, 24 percent are expected to be allocated toward surveillance technology, with 19 percent earmarked for big data analytics, and another 19 percent for mobile and network technology.

Public and community safety ranked as respondents’ top priority, followed by transport and urban infrastructure, and the advancement of Internet or IT capabilities. Crime investigation, transport and traffic services, and cyber security were the top three public safety issues that respondents felt their countries had struggled with.

A new whitepaper from Hitachi Data Systems offers analysis of the survey findings, and focuses on adoption barriers that prevent full implementation of public safety initiatives and real-world solutions that are helping to create smarter and safer cities.