Complex emergencies can be an operational nightmare for public safety answering points (PSAPs). From citizens reporting the event to updates from first responders, PSAPs receive a surge of information that can be difficult to analyze for timely, informed decision-making.
Not only are PSAPs faced with the daunting responsibility to quickly evaluate a barrage of incoming information, the demands on their supporting technologies and systems also increase. The more complex an emergency, the more scalable their systems need to be. Having the appropriate technology is essential for understanding, reacting, and recovering during complex emergencies.
The need for assistive AI
Real-time data analysis
With assistive artificial intelligence (AI), a PSAP can avoid missed opportunities, and instead, leverage relevant insights that help determine needs and prioritize actions. Assistive AI detects complex emergencies earlier in their development, alerting call-takers and dispatchers to critical trends, anomalies, and similarities between events. This second set of eyes and real-time analysis allows staff to make timelier, more-informed decisions, enabling them to better assist field personnel and keep citizens safer.
Multi-agency collaboration
Assistive AI can also be beneficial during incidents affecting multiple public safety agencies inside and outside a jurisdiction. As is often the case, each organization captures important information (e.g., calls to police, EMS, fire department, etc.), but connections are missed because call-takers and dispatchers don’t have insight into data received by those other organizations. In collaborative PSAP environments, however, assistive AI can monitor and detect links and patterns across all available event data.
Help from the cloud
Greater scalability
Cloud technologies provide greater flexibility, as you only pay for what you use and can easily scale to meet demand. For example, adding and scaling back software licenses. By deploying assistive AI software in the cloud, PSAPs gain scalable computing power and capacity. This is increasingly important as next-generation communications leverage more data sources (e.g., messaging service, VoIP, video streaming, sensors, etc.).
Processing calls for service is relatively low under normal conditions, but grows substantially during a major event. Since major events are rare, having capacity that can instantly scale — and only paying for additional capacity during that short time — avoids the operational costs of purchasing, maintaining, and upgrading a high level of server capacity that’s seldom used.
System continuity
A cloud environment also offers PSAPs physical resilience because it reduces likelihood of servers and backup facilities being disrupted during a large-scale event like a hurricane or wildfire. And cloud-deployed software allows call-takers and dispatchers to work remotely from anywhere with internet connectivity, whether a contingency facility, in the field, or their homes.
The bottom line
Assistive AI and cloud computing solve operational challenges of public safety organizations and improve the lives of millions. The combination allows PSAPs to be more efficient, strategic, insight-driven, and prepared to adapt to changing situations. By utilizing both, agencies also have a better chance to save more lives and mitigate disruption.
Learn about our cloud solutions and assistive AI tools to discover how they can help your public safety organization be more prepared and resilient.
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