ASG's Security Solutions Blog

The Right People, The Right Information, Right Now!

The IACP as a Proof Point for an Optimized and Integrated Security Platform

Since its formation in 1893, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has met annually to share insights, learn about promising practices, and discuss up-and-coming technology. Each year thousands of law enforcement executives come together to continue this tradition by attending training sessions, networking with peers, and exploring a state-of-the-art Exhibit Hall.

ASG sent its Vice President of Strategic Development, Nigel Waterton, to understand what the key issues facing law enforcement are and what they are doing about it. What follows is a 'Great Conversation' Interview with Nigel.

Great Conversation: Give us 3 key words that will help us understand what the themes were at this conference, both in the sessions and in your face to face interviews.

Waterton: Interoperability, Intelligence, Roadmap

Great Conversation: Tell us about each

Waterton: 'Interoperability’ Imagine having to be a primary first responder and realizing that your people, processes and technology (tools) may not be aligned or compatible with other responders. How will that impact the outcome? A key issue is identifying how this alignment can be achieved. How do I know who is doing what, how the information will be aggregated and communicated, and in what format? This takes an extraordinary effort between public and private influencers in the marketplace to make this happen.

Great Conversation: What about 'Intelligence'?

Waterton: Everyone, including our law enforcement officers, have 'bits' of data streaming from people as well as analog and digital sources. This must be captured and aggregated and placed into some useful format. And then, appropriate analytics must be applied to create 'intelligence' that can be acted upon.

Great Conversation: And what about 'Roadmap'?

Waterton: This is the one word that was not used, but was desperately vocalized between the lines. There needs to be a source of information and applied intelligence that can provide a roadmap to these officers that integrates the people, process and technology that will create a highly leveraged platform to achieve their desired outcomes. A roadmap takes into considerations their budgets, time and resources as well as provides a creative path to value.

Great Conversation: Is this just a police problem?

Waterton: Absolutely not. No one in the public or private sector has enough time and money to create a knowledge base and practice around emerging technologies and applied solutions. We are hearing from all executives responsible for the security of their organizations that they need a roadmap so they can optimize their current people, process and tool paradigm, releasing precious time and investment toward innovation.

Great Conversation: What is your company doing about this demand?

Waterton: We are aligning all our disciplines: Strategic Development, Client Management, Engineering, and Project Management around the over-arching discipline we call Security Process Optimization. If we can't leverage our years identifying redundancies and using technology as a force multiplier to get your organization on a path to value, then we should not be in the industry.

Great Conversation: Thank you and we look forward to more information around first responders as you continue your research.