Information technologies that unify emergency response agencies and allow for efficient interoperation between agencies will enable more effective incident responses, says information technology multinational Huawei Enterprise global public safety expert Peter Goulding.

The effective sharing of information, with control over exposure of information for each use case, is key. However, many public safety and emergency response agencies still operate separately and there are limited examples of the information sharing required to make cities and emergency agencies more effective.

“Responding effectively in the world of modern communications requires the ability to share photographs, location data, videos, sound clips and contextual, relevant intelligence and information seamlessly. While information sharing among agencies is commonplace, the effective integration to allow for seamless information sharing is not yet commonplace.”

Goulding spent 35 years with the London Metropolitan police service, in the UK, prior to joining Huawei.

Public safety and emergency organisations exist to learn from, reduce the impact of and better prepare for disasters and incidents, he says.

Mission-critical communications infrastructure is essential to enable the secure and seamless sharing of relevant information to raise situational awareness which can significantly boost the effectiveness of responders.

Similarly, using new technologies, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and Big Data analytics, can provide additional tools and resources to boost the impact and effectiveness of emergency responders.

“The expertise of personnel, often honed over decades of service, can be enhanced, shared and learnt through the use of technology as information ‘captured’ in digital form can help to solve crimes and improve response processes.”

The massive quantities of information coming into control rooms at critical times is difficult and complex to manage, as is the distribution of relevant information within short but crucial timeframes. Therefore, using technologies that can analyse the information and parse it for specific uses and distribute it, enabling control room operators to deal more effectively with the data and share it, will assist responders and greatly aid investigations, notes Goulding.

“Picking out the critical pieces of information for a team or an operator among the mass of critical information and then being able, within a short time, to send them to the team for action is important. Public-safety agencies must consider how they will approach digitalisation and how they can leverage new ways of working to make themselves more effective.”

Information-sharing platforms can also provide information for the public, such as during emergencies and incidents, and improve the performance of response teams and control room operators, adds Goulding.

Additionally, countries can learn directly from other countries about how mature emergency response systems and resources are structured, and how to structure specialist resources to ensure the greatest impact on investigations and emergency operations. Developing countries are leapfrogging technological steps as a result and are doing fairly well in terms of transforming their emergency systems, he states.

Further, information captured outside the ‘golden hour’ of first response must be made available to specialist resources. Information management systems must enable specialists to navigate the information effectively and view all additional information, including metadata linked to various digital files, and the systems must automatically search through visual and audio files to improve investigations.

Goulding advises that systems should be designed so that continuous improvements to the technical solutions can be made. Huawei uses open standards as a way of facilitating the use of a range of technologies and solutions, which also enables the users – in this case agencies – to change and improve the systems to meet their needs.

“Police chiefs and agency leadership are best placed to decide how technology can improve their operations, and should be given all the information about the benefits and drawbacks to make well-informed decisions. Their leadership in transforming their agencies is key, but, while implementing technology changes, it is crucial to understand that uninterrupted operation of these public safety organisations is essential.”

Therefore, a considered approach and a gradual change to processes and workflows of public safety officers are typically undertaken, concludes Goulding.