M ilan Mueller, president of the Omega Group, recently sat down with managing editor Crawford Coates to discuss technology and trends that will change law enforcement in the coming years.
CC: Has law enforcement been slow to embrace GIS and other mapping technologies?
MM: It takes time to get organizations to adapt and embrace technology. When the first generations of mapping solutions became available, professionals were focusing their time educating users how mapping technology improved workflows, timely data dissemination and enhanced collaboration based on data-driven analysis. Today, law enforcement embraces the mission critical role mapping technology supports in both the daily operations and strategic planning. In fact, there is a healthy exchange of ideas between the law enforcement users and application developers that drives the evolving software roadmap agenda.
CC: How does technology affect situational awareness?
MM: Situational awareness requires that we get information to first responders in a timely fashion. The demand is for up-to-date information related to incidents and persons which are pertinent to the location of the officer. As an officer moves about, the proximity-based information is updated. Immediate access to relevant data improves officer awareness and safety. It also helps officers in the field prioritize their activities. As trends and patterns change, law enforcement is able to monitor these occurrences and respond immediately.
CC: Is it possible for police to have too much information at their fingertips?
MM: Not if we understand the workflows of the user and design solutions and applications which meet their needs. For example, how a patrol officer uses a mobile device compared to how a crime analyst uses a desktop solution is very different. Law enforcement leverages numerous mapping platforms. Desktop mapping solutions have evolved into enterprise systems which include desktop, web-based dashboards and mobile mapping applications. Each type of application meets the needs of different users from command staff, crime analysis and patrol. We have to understand how our users interact with technology and provide the appropriate device platform and data as a result of the workflow.
CC: Where does intuition in the street come into this?
MM: Technology is there to further support intuition. Memory and sense of one’s situation are enhanced by the technology. You’re interfacing in real time as an individual officer with your environment, but now, because of your mobile computing device, you’re armed with much more information including notes and tips from your colleagues. In essence, the technology serves as a knowledge source capturing experiences of other officers as well as yourself.
CC: Why is it so important to have all of this in one place?
MM: Numerous data sources from various data collection sources create the profile which focuses our attention on problematic locations (hot spots), peak activity by time of day, and persons of interest. The ability to query data through a single user interface integrated with a data warehouse containing all these data sources is fundamental to the timely and efficient analysis, planning and response strategies.
CC: Where is it all going next?
MM: What’s holding departments up in deploying this technology is all the variables of the marketplace. It’s cultural. It’s economics. It’s the rate of change. Smartphone’s are proliferating and evolving as such a rate, it’s unbelievable. Android or phone? Smartphone or tablet? What version do you buy? Do you allow officers to use their personal devices? That’s what they’re struggling with now. William Gibson said it best: The future is already here today, it’s just not evenly distributed.
