Fans of forensic crime dramas, cold case TV series, and emergency services documentaries will know that an investigation can depend upon the chain of custody of evidence being robust. Damaged or lost evidence could mean a culprit walks away or the cause of a fire remains unknown, while the discovery of a formerly lost or unknown piece of evidence can lead to solving a case.
Public safety is an irreplaceable need for any community, and the nature of crime, health and security threats is that they can often be unpredictable. Delays or inefficiencies in public safety systems can lead to life altering consequences and even unsolved cases.
There’s a principle in the Get Things Done (GTD) methodology – the more things you have to keep track of yourself, the less things you get done. But critical, urgent, and highly stressful situations don’t allow emergency service operators the time or the mental bandwidth to think whether they’re carrying the right equipment, or enough of it, or where to find more of it. They’re challenged enough as it is from their day to day job, experiencing traumatic situations, and being overworked because of lack of personnel and resources.
This ongoing challenge is leading more and more asset-heavy services like fire, police, ambulance and defence to turn to mobile computing and radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions to track and locate assets, supplies, equipment and evidence to help ensure better emergency responsiveness.
The results back up the rationale for this move. One example is Spain’s police which utilise Zebra L10 rugged tablets, giving them a handheld mobile technology solution in their vehicles. They can check vehicle and personal IDs, take photos, scan documents, capture evidence, check arrest list databases, and digitise their field operations. The tablets have eliminated the need for paper-based processes and time intensive trips to the police station as these activities can be done in real time, providing logistical and time efficiencies.
In the UK, Mid & West Wales Fire and Rescue Service utilise a solution featuring Zebra’s fixed RFID readers and mobile computing to optimise the distribution, management and use of personal protective equipment (PPE), saving more than £600k over the 10 year lifespan of the PPE. And a recent logistics transformation project for a defence organisation by Zebra partner Nuffield Technologies utilising handheld computers, software and services resulted in an 83% reduction in time taken to conduct daily equipment account checks at each site across hundreds of locations, and a 93% decrease in the time taken to receive pallets.
Asset tracking and mobile digitalisation solutions can deliver benefits across the whole gamut of public safety situations. No emergency worker loves paperwork, and here too, automatic inventory tracking and management can relieve the burden, through scanner technology and corresponding software. First responders can swiftly photograph and tag items of evidence immediately at the scene, which can then be uploaded and shared or located among other items at the touch of a button via a mobile or stationary RFID scanner.
With streamlined, digitised management, officers spend less time on paperwork and more time protecting the public, while investigators gain clearer, more reliable case data, leading to better resolutions. Digitised inventory monitoring backed by networked technology can benefit areas like evidence custody, equipment checking, equipment replacement, and paperless documentation.
Saving Time Saves Lives
Checking equipment on emergency vehicles is a very time consuming process due to the sheer volume, variety and weight of the total items, especially if done using pen and paper – that’s if time allows. But RFID technology now means that officers can check in seconds at the beginning of their shift which part of their equipment is on board – and which is not.
Replacing defective or missing equipment components can also be managed much more efficiently through digital asset tracking, for example, ensuring that materials with expiry dates are replaced on time and equipment is serviced regularly. This saves a lot of time for the emergency personnel and increases their safety and peace of mind, as they can know they can rely on the equipment onboard.
Paperless documentation via mobile access to critical data is essential for emergency services to make faster, more informed decisions in urgent situations. AI powered analytics, edge computing, and real-time database access can all enable instant retrieval of suspect records, vehicle registrations, medical details, or live incident reports.
The cost saving potential can be a compelling business case for smaller emergency services digitise too. For example, one fire and rescue service reduced its carrying costs by 50%, and saved around 3,350 euro a month. 24/7 inventory visibility and automation of supplies and equipment tracking makes excellent business sense.
As well as being able to capture assets, documentation and other data in the field, public safety professionals also need to be able to access and share that data in real time. For example, the Europe wide move away from the TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) system to a broadband system will have a big impact for frontline workers who use their radios as a lifeline. Broadband is needed to handle the large volume of data and communication needs of public safety professionals. Much of that is evidence, documentation, and ID data, as well real-time database access for cross-checking, and video calls which broadband can better handle.
We can clearly see that the future of public safety relies on technology driven efficiency, proactive decision-making, and secure, interoperable communication to empower first responders when every second counts.
Find out more about how asset tracking is the quiet friend public safety workers rely on here.
About the Author
Zebra Technologies
Zebra (NASDAQ: ZBRA) helps organizations monitor, anticipate, and accelerate workflows by empowering their frontline and ensuring that everyone and everything is visible, connected and fully optimized. Our award-winning portfolio spans software to innovations in robotics, machine vision, automation and digital decisioning, all backed by a +50-year legacy in scanning, track-and-trace and mobile computing solutions. With an ecosystem of 10,000 partners across more than 100 countries, Zebra’s customers include over 80% of the Fortune 500.
