Public Safety

Smart technologies are revolutionizing how cities locate, mitigate and prevent safety issues. Smart city approaches allow the City to improve its analytical and responsive capabilities, while improving transparency and better informing the public. Several recent initiatives demonstrate the City’s leadership in smart public safety initiatives.

Completed Projects

Police Observation Devices (PODs) constructed in-house by City police officers, which are customized to City needs and provide multiple public safety benefits such as video feed, and license plate recognition. Building on the Police Department’s successful deployment of these units and growing community demand, the City is now supplying technical specifications and recommendations to other agencies.
Deployment of four zero emission motorcycles to better serve the changing landscape of downtown, the new Golden 1 Center, and community events. Benefits include the more compact design of the motorcycles for improved maneuverability, no emissions, no noise, and no hot parts that pose risk of burns at crowded community events. In addition, the motorcycles have lower costs of operation.
The release of crime data through the City’s Open Data portal
Opening of the new Real Time Crime Center in partnership with Regional Transit, for coordinated monitoring, dispatch, and response.

Projects in Progress

Implementation of Council Policy to release video as it relates to Officer Involved Shootings with expansion of existing technical tools to provide greater transparency.
Storing body camera data using the virtual network cloud
Improvements in mobile devices and technical solutions for police in the field
Expansion of police force diversity with new recruitment methods, tools, and partnerships
Through the Public-Private Partnership (P3) with Verizon, the Public Safety and Security / Real-Time Crime Center solution will provide a comprehensive suite of edge devices that will include high-resolution video cameras, integrated video security management, a unified dashboard that can provide value-added insights by combining data from multiple sources, and advanced video analysis that can support real-time and forensic analysis.