Understanding external challenges in public safety

Mobility, virtualisation and cloud solutions can empower both citizens and public agencies, making use of the wealth of information becoming available today, says the managing director of Microsoft’s worldwide public safety and justice business.

Writing in his latest public safety and defence blog, Dr Andrew Hawkins said: “Tools that identify and gather relevant data, analyse it, and put it into the hands of those who need it can become force multipliers, enabling the delivery of faster, more efficient citizen services.”

He said public safety organisations are facing a double set of challenges today, pressured by both internal and external forces to keep pace with a rapidly expanding threat landscape with often limited financial, physical and human resources.

“The combined impact of these challenges requires ministries, agencies and departments to transform their operations and take better advantage of the efficiencies offered by today’s technology solutions,” said Dr Hawkins.

“Each organisation, from international policing establishments to ministries, city and municipal police and volunteer firefighters, has its own unique needs. But they also share a broad range of threats to public safety across the globe that are common to most, if not all, organisations. Fortunately, there also is a set of solutions emerging in the new technology ecosystem created by our cloud first, mobile first world and by the explosion of social media.”

He highlights some of the key threats to public safety as acts of terrorism, crime – from street crime to Europe-wide organised crime groups and the global epidemic of cybercrime – natural emergencies and public order disturbances.

To read the full blog visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ government/blogs/public-safety-defense/default.aspx#fbid =i1ceL6Wms9u