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The New World Of Collaboration Technology
An emerging generation of technology has the power to deliver the higher standards and levels of collaboration that public safety and security now demand, Alastair Ritchie of Intergraph, explains to The BAPCO Journal...
Today, an emerging generation of powerful and resilient technology has the power to integrate geospatial and incident command information with data from intelligent video, location tracking and other types of sensors. This combined intelligence can be fused to provide a more complete and up-to-date picture of an unfolding emergency situation.
Based on open standards, this technology is now setting a new standard for large scale public safety and security applications, that can support interoperability across multiple agencies and technology platforms - improving decision quality and shortening incident response times.
Importantly, the new generation of 'collaboration technology' has the power to cross both sector and geographical boundaries. It can act as the foundation for security systems and the multiple agencies assigned to collaboratively protect not only the public but also military installations, airports, train stations; production plant; and other critical industrial, transportation and government infrastructure.
Standards vary
In the UK, the Civil Contingencies Act places a legal obligation on public safety and local authority 'co-civil-contingency-partners' to collaborate and exchange data. But (as yet) no framework exists for data exchange. Around the UK, standards (including quality standards) therefore vary widely, with real-time data-sharing a rarity. The data that is exchanged tends to be slow-moving and not always up to date. The typically semi-manual process of file extract, copy, import and resolution of differences in data models (between two or more data models and multiple parties) takes time, is error-prone, potentially insecure and often costly.
Periodic copying of data can lead to poor and potentially disastrous incident management, when dispatch and on-site incident handling are based on old information. This was seen in the now infamous Enschede case in the Netherlands, when the site of a fire, referred to as a 'shed' in Brigade records, was in fact a firework factory. Insufficient resources were dispatched; the fire was not quickly contained; and many lives were lost as a result.
Meanwhile in the UK there are some notable exponents of best practice. Devon has instituted data-sharing between and across its partner agencies - including its health authority, an area demanding careful data management.
Suffolk Constabulary has installed a command and control system which can enable collaborative call handling with its neighbouring forces, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.
A small but significant minority of UK police forces have invested in systems that (with some straightforward adaptation) can be used to direct multiple, inter-agency collaborative communications, including real-time management of any major incident.
In Scotland, Northern Constabulary recently used its command and control system during an unprecedented period of severe weather to provide Silver Command, major incident collaboration communications for the multiple emergency, public and private agencies involved in flood management, transportation and utilities breakdown and public protection.
In contrast, as we go to press one English fire and rescue service is still unable to generate data (other than manually) from its own organisation - let alone communicate electronically with others.
Going global
Outside the UK, notable collaboration and integration technology exponents include the German Federal Police or bundespolizei, responsible for providing public safety at airports, railways, and federal borderlines, as well as on the high seas. This includes patrolling and protecting 7,530 railway stations with more than 1.7 billion passengers; securing flight passengers and airport grounds; and providing police surveillance for borders on land, water, and from the air within a radius of 30 km.
Because of their many responsibilities and the vast amount of land they needed to protect, the German Federal Police have implemented a modernised dispatch management and communication system that allows them to optimise their coordination of activities, nationwide, and shorten their response times, for example immediately alerting additional police staff when help is needed and providing mobile units with real-time information.
US capital Washington DC has deployed a Unified, collaboration technology-enabled Communications Centre that consolidates the public communications functions of the DC Police, Fire and Emergency services (FEMS), Emergency Management Agency, and Public Services. "The District is able to leverage cutting edge technology that promotes multi-agency information sharing in real-time, which will shave off time when seconds count most" comments DC Office of Unified Communications director Mike Latessa.
And New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) - which manages the safety and security of the transportation infrastructure for its 14.6 million-strong population - has deployed an Integrated Electronic Security System and Command, Communications and Control programme: a £212 million deployment designed to boost the security of the largest transportation system in North America.
These early deployments are the first of many, as this new generation of technology fuels the growth of collaborative public safety and security practice.
COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY DEFINED
• Integrates geospatial, sensory, command and other information, in real time.
• Common standard enables data flow - with full, concurrent data sharing up and down a command hierarchy: filters limit content access in line with data protection legislation and other user-defined criteria.
• Collaboration systems are:
o Highly scalable, to handle application sizes that may range (for example) from a single field unit to a full emergency operations centre.
o Designed to run resiliently (minimum downtime) and securely in a disaster recovery-ready environment.
o Interoperable: based on agreed, common, 'open' or industry standards that enable inter-agency, inter-civil contingency co-planner communication and collaboration.
The author
Alastair Ritchie is a Security Consultant at Intergraph. At BAPCO 2007 (Wednesday 25 April, Workshop 2, Managing and Sharing Information) he will be giving a presentation on: ‘Providing a scalable, resilient Incident Management System’.
