A Better Solution for Data Management in Law Enforcement
December 7, 2021
Leveraging the Internet of Things in Law Enforcement Data Management
December 7, 2021
In the minutes following a 911 call, a flood of information comes into the station. Data from internal and external records management systems, news media and eyewitness accounts are just the beginning of the overwhelming and oftentimes unorganized influx of data. That’s where Getac Real Time Command comes in.
Getac Real Time Command collects all the gathered data and information, ingests it, filters it and displays it. From there, leadership, field supervisors and support personnel can quickly identify operationally relevant information, alert responding personnel and receive real-time information, including video, from the scene.
Law enforcement has been asking for something like this for years, according to Scott Beeson, Director of Getac Video Solutions’ Convergence Platform. It’s finally here.
An Ecosystem of Knowledge
At Getac Video, the field information gathering system centers around an in-car product called the VR-X20 DVR. This digital video recorder is essentially a computer in a box. It is an edge processor, capable of running multiple applications at once.
One application is video processing, utilizing hardware like the ZeroDark™ HD Camera and the Body-Warn Camera (BWC) to collect information. Another application is trigger sensors, like the Bluetooth Actuator, which tells cameras to record when specific things happen. These automated triggers can be tailored to fit a police department’s needs and requests, but commonly include when the lightbar is activated or when a firearm is removed. Due to an accelerometer in the DVR, you can even set the actuator up to trigger after there has been a crash, or when car speeds exceed a certain limit.
All of the data gathered from the applications are a sort of “ecosystem of knowledge,” according to Beeson. Today, we use that knowledge to turn cameras on and off, but Beeson knows it could be used for so much more.
Getac Real Time Command
Currently, the “ecosystem” gets integrated into the Getac Enterprise Data Management system as a log, but with Getac Real Time Command all of this data moves from a back-office application to a front-office application.
Getac Real Time Command will allow you to take all of the data you already have—your maps, access to CCTV, vehicle locations, officer names, etc.—integrate it, and take action in real-time. For example, if a 911 “shots fired” call comes in, the command center is able to look at all the patrols in the area, determine who is nearing the end of their shift and then send someone who just clocked in. When officers arrive at a scene, someone back at HQ is able to watch live video footage from the in-car and officers’ BWC.
Getac Real Time Command is fully tailored to each department and can be automated to send alerts pushing mission-critical information, like “shots fired” or “officer injured” calls to command. If command is off-site, they can still access the command center remotely to ensure they are never out of contact.
Beeson said the command center is all about using the data that is already being collected and thinking about how to further use it in real-time. “If you think about Getac [Video],” says Beeson, “we started as a video and digital evidence management company. We’ve spent 10 years building the back end. We know when someone logs in, what assets they looked at, how long they looked, if they sent it to someone, or if they changed something; this ensures accountability and credibility of the evidence. Now, with the Getac Real Time Command we are building the cool functional stuff on the front end and leveraging all of the processing capabilities from our back end.”
The bottom line, “it’s all about helping police departments get more for their hardware acquisition and making the community safer by bringing all crucial data points together in a cohesive manner,” Beeson says.
The Future of Getac Real Time Command
New technologies emerging into the market will also be integral in the future of policing and Getac Real Time Command. One of the most innovative is the idea of smart apparel. Imagine a piece of mylar plastic inserted into a police vest that can monitor an officers’ biometrics. That plastic, if damaged by a knife or bullet, can send emergency information letting someone know an officer has been hurt. It may also be able to trigger the actuator to take a photo of the suspect or video leading up to the event.
Getac Video’s next generation BWC will also add several capabilities that will be useful to the Getac Real Time Command, including Wi-Fi and LTE hotspot technology allowing leadership to stream video in real-time. This will be a huge improvement on today’s technology where an officer’s location can’t be pinpointed once an officer leaves the car. Getac Video is also working on another video device that would automatically capture license plate data.
These additional sources of information would allow Getac Real Time Command to “improve officer safety, enhance the response, and give commanders a better idea of what is going on in the field,” Beeson says. “We [already] have all this knowledge of things that are going on inside this ecosystem, let’s make them real.”
Getac Real Time Command is different from any other command center on the market. Contact us today to learn how to turn your data collection from historical logs to operational intel.
