The pace of fire and police tech adoption is only as fast as an agency’s ability to ensure its network is robust, secure, and can accommodate myriad applications
In 1899, Akron, Ohio, made its mark on history by introducing the first police car: an electric wagon equipped with lights, a gong, and a stretcher. Almost 30 years later, Detroit, Michigan, boasted a first-of-its-kind modification to the existing police cruiser by installing a one-way radio system to broadcast crime information. Since then, advancements in police tech have transformed patrol cars into mobile command centers and offices, the likes of which Andy Griffith could scarcely imagine while policing the streets of Mayberry.
Modern technologies used by police and fire agencies
To help first responders do their jobs quickly, safely, and with as little distraction as possible, police and fire crews include a wide breadth of technologies, each requiring specialized connectivity to function properly.
Technologies such as Wi-Fi, computer-aided dispatch (CAD), GPS/GNSS, and onboard computers are table stakes for police and fire department vehicles. Police tech is further enhanced using:
- Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), which combines optical recognition technology with artificial intelligence (AI) to potentially capture hundreds of vehicles’ plates in minutes.
- Dash and body cameras in and around the vehicle and officers to provide an additional layer of security and a visual record of events.
- Drones able to quickly access sites from an additional vantage point to provide photos, videos, and location information to operators and crews on the ground.
Advanced firefighter tech applications include:
- Transit signal priority systems that adjust traffic signals to reduce the amount of time an emergency vehicle spends at a light.
- Augmented reality (AR), which provides visibility inside structures to help firefighters understand layouts and enhance their situational awareness in smoke-filled environments.
- AI training used to simulate the behavior of fire in different conditions, such as wind speed, humidity, and fuel type, which can help firefighters develop effective evacuation and fire suppression plans.
- Drones that provide real-time video feeds and thermal imaging data to identify hazards and hotspots or help locate missing persons, assess building damage, and monitor a fire’s progress.
For some, even AI-powered semi-autonomous vehicles aren’t far down the road, but there are challenges to connecting current and future technologies that police and fire departments must overcome.
The challenges of placing public safety at the forefront of technology
Beyond the complexities of responding to emergencies, public safety agencies must grapple with digital transformation obstacles as they clear a path for technologies that improve field operations. Among the biggest challenges for connecting fire and police tech are:
- Locating, testing, and deploying equipment that can withstand heat, cold, shock, dust, moisture, and other environmental hazards.
- Finding a connectivity solution that provides 24/7 uptime for mission-critical communications and applications, even as vehicles travel in, out, and through varying coverage areas.
- Managing vehicle fleets using limited budget and resources.
- Securing access to internal resources without compromising data.
In the past, agencies used USB modems and mobile hotspots for primary connectivity in cruisers, trucks, and engines, but they often lacked bandwidth and capacity for data-intensive applications and had trouble withstanding harsh environments.
Addressing first responder connectivity and security needs
Agencies must take a multi-pronged approach to supporting fire and police tech, starting with equipment selection. Hardened routers with public safety network compatibility and 5G for first responders are available to support all the technology in police and fire vehicles. Ruggedized rooftop routers and compact vehicle routers are built with space-saving circuitry and vigorously tested to ensure they can perform in extreme heat or cold, withstand excessive shock, and stay online in wet conditions.
That said, a ruggedized router is useless if it can’t connect to a network. Public safety vehicle fleets outfitted with dual-modem routers have the best chance of achieving constant network uptime. That’s because a dual-modem router uses two active radio connections supported by SIM cards from two different carriers, allowing seamless wireless-to-wireless failover as coverage or connectivity needs change.
Public safety agencies can further bolster these Wireless WAN (WWAN) solutions by incorporating SD-WAN functionality to optimize traffic on the network and deploy link aggregation features such as bandwidth aggregation, which combines WAN links to create a fatter pipe for certain applications. In the case of police tech, this might mean bonding links to support live video streaming or high-resolution downloads from drones.
Security is another important aspect of frontline tech advancements. Secure tunneling solutions and a zero trust architecture are vital to reducing the attack surface, preventing lateral movement, and providing safe user-to-resource access on first responder networks. Not only do these solutions avoid data leaks, but they also protect applications from unmanaged devices and thwart zero-day and phishing attacks. Further, lean IT teams can implement and troubleshoot true zero trust internet access from anywhere when monitored and managed from a single platform.
