When it comes to public safety, making fast and informed decisions is essential. Every second matters, and agencies need to gather information from a wide variety of sources so they can respond to critical incidents quickly and effectively.
Modern technology has greatly improved the ability for agencies to have situational awareness during emergency events. Video can be live-streamed from Body-worn cameras or CCTV cameras, GPS can provide location data, sensors can detect gun shots, and so much more. One of the challenges is bringing together all of these data sources into one location, such as a real-time crime center.
In this article, we’ll define situational awareness, explore some of the challenges, and demonstrate why Axon Fusus is an incredible tool for agencies looking to enhance their situational awareness. Axon Fusus wasn’t created to just solve crimes quickly, it was created to help agencies make informed decisions and respond to critical incidents at the highest level of efficiency.
Let’s get started.
What is situational awareness?
Situational awareness is a critical concept in law enforcement that, historically, refers to the ability of officers to perceive, comprehend, and anticipate situations in real time. It involves being cognizant of one's surroundings, understanding the context of a situation, and making informed decisions based on this awareness.
Today, situational awareness goes far beyond what the individual officer perceives. Modern technology plays a crucial role in enabling agency leadership to have a comprehensive understanding of ongoing operations and potential threats.
Modernized situational awareness is a force multiplier for law enforcement agencies, providing them with access to actionable insights, real-time intelligence, and collaborative tools. By leveraging these technological advancements, leaders can make informed decisions, allocate resources strategically, and enhance the overall effectiveness of their law enforcement operations.
None of this is possible, however, without efficient access to relevant data.
Challenges with situational awareness for police today
Here are a few of the questions that police officers and agencies may need to answer, and answer quickly:
Does someone at the location need first aid immediately?
Was the crime violent or nonviolent?
How many officers do we need to send?
The suspect has been seen attempting to leave the area. Do other agency partners need to be called in?
Does personnel need to be assigned to different command and operation centers around a public space during a shooting or hostage situation?
How will the response affect traffic and will officers need to be allocated there?
What happened directly before the incident? What happened afterwards?
Can eyewitnesses corroborate that story that was told?
Is an accurate and actionable description of the person(s) of interest or the vehicle available for a BOLO?
There are several challenges they must overcome to answer these questions. First, they actually need access to data. THis could be from an officer on-the-scene using a radio, or it could come from the live-stream of a CCTV camera. The more data sources, the more information they have to make informed decisions.
When the data comes from a wide variety of unconnected sources, however, first responders must piece together information from a variety of silos, and this can cost precious time or cause important information to simply be missed.
Technology can serve as a powerful tool for law enforcement officers in the field, providing them with enhanced awareness of their surroundings, accurate location information, and a better understanding of the people or objects nearby. However, for technology to be effective, it must be deployed and operate within the appropriate parameters.
Modern agencies who want to take advantage of the different data sources can do so by unifying everything into a single, open solution like Axon Fusus. There are many advantages to having multiple data points on a “single pane of glass.”
A truly unified approach to situational awareness
Here at Axon, we believe that unified technology should be built on partnerships and relationships with other like-minded software and hardware systems. We work with others and explore every reasonable way for disparate technologies to work together in a common interface.
This kind of technologically agnostic approach does away with technology bias and aims to help police officers improve their existing operational processes, solve crimes and respond to emergencies in the most effective way moving forward.
Public safety is a collaborative effort and the tools they use should be made with collaboration as its backbone. Having effective license plate readers, gunshot detectors, traffic cameras and other tools can all be helpful on their own, but the true magic happens when all of these tools work together.
Centralizing data sources has proven to enhance situational awareness, quickly providing first responders with the information they need to make informed decisions. These decisions can help them safely apprehend a suspect, de-escalate a dangerous situation, or provide lifesaving help to someone in need.
The Fusus platform is designed to do exactly that - it pulls in software and hardware from any source, enabling departments of any size to affordably modernize their situational awareness capabilities. The flexibility provided by our open system also means agencies can customize the way they use their existing tools with maximum efficiency.
Axon Fusus enhances situational awareness
Fusus’ multi-pronged approach takes into account every step in a department’s critical response capabilities and serves as an enhancement to any given officer’s situational awareness.
Fusus is a Real Time Crime Center platform that is open and interoperable with virtually any hardware and/or software. This means that law enforcement partners can interact with all of their tools in one place at one time on one single pane of glass. This creates a precise network of information and makes it easier for officers to access pertinent data in real-time.
The Fusus format makes assigning resources easier. The platform has live and informational insights that allow the right resources to be pushed to key strategic areas during a critical incident. Police are then able to respond to each incident with the highest level of operational intelligence, completely aware of their surroundings, with a common operating picture, and everyone in the right place.
The Real Time Crime Center integrates data feeds from various sources like cameras, gunshot detectors, and license plate readers, providing agencies with comprehensive situational awareness. Fusus allows instant incident support by offering precise details and actionable evidence, reducing investigation time and enhancing accuracy.
Law enforcement doesn’t just need improvements in technology, they need improvement in processes that can effectively change the pace and accuracy of their work. Workflows need to be able to be tailored to fit the needs and size of any department.
With Fusus, command centers and officers can now operate from a position of knowledge, with a clearer understanding of how to serve their community even better when answering calls for emergencies.
Learn more about Axon Fusus here.