Artificial intelligence (AI) has quietly made its way into our daily lives. It auto-completes our searches, offers responses to emails, and populates our news feeds with tailored content. Now, AI is emerging as a key technology for public safety organizations. One of the primary goals of any public safety agency is to provide emergency services to the citizens of its communities, and do so quickly and effectively. To meet that goal, front-line responders must make split-second decisions as events unfold.
Here’s where AI can help. Take NG911, for example. This is a digital system in which callers can quickly share photos and videos with call-takers. Public safety answering points (PSAPs) with remote access to cameras can leverage AI to quickly identify potential suspects and suspect vehicles, as well as analyze and share images and video to the field arms first responders with additional information.
No doubt, there are multiple benefits to utilizing AI within public safety, including:
- Efficiency, through the use of AI to streamline workflows from the PSAP to the field.
- Forecasting, by providing evidence-based insights into crime trends
- Awareness, by using algorithms to uncover patterns, similarities, and linked incidents.
- Feedback, by generating data-driven insights into areas where processes can be improved.
- Transparency, through sharing methodologies to improve accountability and improve public trust.
Using AI to save real lives
One of the most significant benefits of AI to public safety is at the human level. Dispatchers and call-takers are tasked with making life-changing decisions in a split second, yet this daily exposure to frantic callers leads to an increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder. As a result, turnover within the PSAP tends to be high. Here again, leveraging AI within the PSAP can provide real-time insights and additional information to those employees and mitigate their stress.
While the debate over AI and where/how it should be deployed within public safety isn’t likely to be settled soon, it’s important to note that assistive AI is exactly that. It is not meant to replace humans or make unilateral decisions and act upon them; rather, it exists to issue alerts based on context to provide real-time insights into developing situations.
Public safety organizations now have a first-to-market solution designed to scan a broader horizon. HxGN OnCall® Dispatch | Smart Advisor from Hexagon leverages AI and machine learning to notify users of trends, anomalies, and similarities within CAD events. Ask for your demo today.
