\u201cCriminals perpetually update their techniques to incorporate the very latest emerging technologies into their modus operandi,\u201d writes cyber security expert Marc Goodman in his book, Future Crimes.<\/em><\/p>

While high-profile hacks tend to dominate the headlines, digital technology is increasingly being used to commit traditional analog crimes. For example, 42% of the vehicles stolen in London in 2015 were nabbed by tech-savvy thieves who defeated the cars\u2019 electronic locks and ignition switches. Social media is being used to coordinate \u201cflash mobs\u201d that overwhelm staff at retail stores and loot the shelves. Smartphone apps help drunk drivers avoid DUI checkpoints, and rioters evade police.<\/p>

As technology progresses, so will the variety and sophistication of the criminals who use it. What can authorities do to prevent a future onslaught of technologically abetted crime?<\/p>

I spent more than a decade in the Singapore Police Force, starting as an investigator and eventually becoming head of IT. I then spent nearly two decades in the private sector, devising ways to use technology to improve public safety. Based on that experience, I\u2019ve concluded that closer collaboration \u2013 enhanced by the right technologies \u2013 is the key to fighting crime in the 21st century.<\/p>

The first step is to improve collaboration among law enforcement agencies. This sounds simple, but \u201cpublic safety\u201d covers quite a broad area. In addition to terrorist attacks, it encompasses commonplace dangers such as street crime and traffic accidents. It also includes things like visa applications and border protection, white collar crimes such as money laundering, public health crises such as flu epidemics, and natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes.<\/p>

This complexity creates technological silos that make collaboration more difficult. The average large city has about 100 different IT systems related to public safety, covering everything from drug enforcement to drivers\u2019 licenses. Siloed data is harder to consolidate and share.<\/p>

Not that authorities aren\u2019t trying. Police in Finland have worked for eight years to implement VITJA, a system that merges various legacy IT systems into a single platform. In the United States, the Chicago Police Department took 10 years to harmonize its more than 80 systems into CLEAR, a platform that lets police scan a database of 3m arrest records using only a suspect\u2019s street moniker or tattoo.
Such projects take time, but they pay dividends in the long run.<\/p>

The second step is to form closer ties between police and communities, using technology to make the collaboration more effective.<\/p>

Law enforcement agencies can\u2019t fight crime alone. Neighborhood Watch programs, which encourage citizens to report suspicious activities, are a well-known example of police and communities working together to make cities safer.<\/p>

Digital technology amplifies the benefits of such public-private collaboration. In Singapore, the Civil Defense Force lets volunteers trained in CPR use a smartphone app called MyResponder. When someone has a heart attack, the app alerts nearby volunteers, sending the location of the emergency and of the nearest Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Volunteers using MyResponder have already saved several lives.<\/p>

Another example comes from Qiqihar, in northeastern China. The city\u2019s 5,000 taxis are equipped with cameras that wirelessly transmit video to a police control room. If a crime or emergency occurs, police can access real-time video from nearby cabs.<\/p>

The ubiquity of social media can also help foster technology-enhanced collaboration. To catch the Boston Marathon bombers, police relied heavily on smartphone photographs and video taken by people near the finish line.<\/p>

In addition to working more closely with communities, police will need a common technology platform that lets them instantly share and analyze different types of digital data. This includes fixed-line and mobile phone calls, video, GPS coordinates, and data taken from the millions of objects equipped with sensors in the Internet of Things.<\/p>

Achieving this technological seamlessness is rarely easy. Platforms available in major metropolitan areas often are a hodgepodge of incompatible, inflexible technologies. When properly constructed, however, a unified platform can produce dramatic results.<\/p>

In Kenya, for example, tourism is the second-largest source of foreign exchange revenue after agriculture. But in recent years, Kenyan tourism suffered a decline linked to safety concerns.<\/p>

In response, Safaricom, the country\u2019s biggest mobile network operator, created a digital platform integrating the resources of police, fire, public transport, and healthcare agencies in Kenya\u2019s two largest cities, Nairobi and Mombasa. The new platform eliminated the information silos that had separated the agencies in the past, and gave 18,000 policemen advanced tools for sharing information.<\/p>

In the 12 months after this solution was put in place, crime rates in Nairobi and Mombasa fell by 46%, according to the annual report of the Kenya Police Service. Tourism picked up considerably, with hotel room occupancy in early 2016 rising 18% over the year-ago period.<\/p>

As cities increasingly propel the economies of entire nations, there is growing pressure on governments to make them as safe as possible. But putting more police on the streets is not the answer. The nature of law enforcement has changed, and technology has become central to public safety.<\/p>

Siloed organizations and technologies impede collaboration and information-sharing among law enforcement groups, both domestically and across borders. To cope with the growth of high-tech crime, law enforcement must tighten inter-agency collaboration and work closely with the communities they serve. Acquiring unified technology platforms will multiply the effects of that collaboration. In this way, the full armamentarium of digital technology can be brought to bear on criminal activity in a way that makes cities safe, both now and in the future.<\/p>","blog_img":"","posted_date":"2017-08-31 15:53:57","modified_date":"2017-08-31 17:26:05","featured":"0","status":"Y","seo_title":"Huawei: ICT collaboration and right tools to empower law and order","seo_url":"huawei-ict-collaboration-and-right-tools-to-empower-law-and-order","url":"\/\/www.iser-br.com\/tele-talk\/huawei-ict-collaboration-and-right-tools-to-empower-law-and-order\/2577","url_seo":"huawei-ict-collaboration-and-right-tools-to-empower-law-and-order"},img_object:["","retail_files/author_1504174856_temp.jpg"],fromNewsletter:"",newsletterDate:"",ajaxParams:{action:"get_more_blogs"},pageTrackingKey:"Blog",author_list:"Koh Hong-Eng",complete_cat_name:"Blogs"});" data-jsinvoker_init="_override_history_url = "//www.iser-br.com/tele-talk/huawei-ict-collaboration-and-right-tools-to-empower-law-and-order/2577";">