Putting Personal Safety Back in the Hands of CitizensThree Strategies that Create Greater Citizen Engagement

Contents

Crowdsourcing in Public Safety

What is crowdsourcing?

Engaging and enabling private citizens to help public safety professionals address daily hazards and

suspicious activities, natural disasters, terror attacks, crime or vandalism by reporting incidents –

anonymously if desired – in a convenient and accessible way using their smartphones.

Now is the time for crowdsourcing initiatives

Around the globe, threats to public security and safety continue to grow. Meanwhile, more

information is in the hands of the public than ever before, thanks to smartphones and tablets that

people take everywhere.

69.4% of the global mobile

phone users will use smartphones

by 2017.1

47% of smartphone owners use social media daily3

and every minute 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube.4

80% of Internet users worldwide

own smartphonesand almost 50% own tablets.2

1 http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-Users-Worldwide-Will-Total-175-Billion-2014/1010536 2 GlobalWebIndex Q3 2014 3 http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015/ 4 https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/

Crowdsourcing in Public Safety (cont.)

Most people are accustomed to capturing events on video and then sharing via social

networks. Crowdsourcing simply takes this sharing and harnesses it for a greater cause.

As people’s daily use of smartphones has evolved, smartphone technology itself and the

municipal communication infrastructure are also making crowdsourcing more feasible. The

technologies are now mature enough to support reporting – including live video streaming

or images – from the public to an emergency command-and-control center.

These factors combine to enable citizens to participate in public safety and security like

never before. They can act as intelligence gatherers who help to notify authorities of daily

hazards, crime, vandalism and other significant risks or events in the routine of a city.

Meanwhile, residents act as a force multiplier by helping to solve crimes, send in digital

evidence and even catch perpetrators if they were close to the scene.

open to the idea of CROWDSOURCING

Today’s smartphone users are already

Crowdsourcing in Action

By providing citizens easy access to report on incidents improves the feeling of personal

safety in a city, on a campus and on public transport. Moreover, with so many ‘eyes’ on

the street, it enables law enforcement agencies to gain valuable information to piece the

puzzle together.

Examples:

• “See something, report something” initiatives

• Amber alerts

• Forensic evidence collection (e.g., following the Boston Marathon bombing)

• Enabling “citizen superheroes” (e.g., a citizen performing CPR for a stranger)

“See something, report something” initiatives

Amber alerts

Forensic evidence collection

Enabling “citizen superheroes”

Public Safety Crowdsourcing Can Have a Significant Impact in Key Areas

STRATEGY 1 Safe City & Transportation Safety InitiativesIn a safe city or transportation safety initiative, every citizen is a potential “sensor,” capable of

contributing vital information on a range of situations:

• Individual personal safety

• Amber alerts, or notifications for missing children, along with descriptions of

potential danger

• “See something, say something” campaigns for both emergencies and routine issues

• Anonymous tips, which allow citizens to send crime tips and potential threats or hazards

to authorities with no need to login or download an application

• After-incident digital evidence collection

• Public safety announcements and notifications based on location information of the

citizens: Alerts can be sent to all citizens in a specific radius during an emergency

• Wisdom of the Crowds: Correlate multiple overlapping citizen inputs into one incident

and gain vital real time information and digital evidence on an event

Real-world example: Crowdsourcing for transit safety

The transit police are investigating two mugging cases on train platforms. Officials issue a

warning alert over different channels, including a personal safety application. Passengers

receive warnings about a suspect related to the mugging cases. The suspect’s face and

description of the case are issued to all registered users on the personal safety app.

A passenger entering the platform at Kings Street reads the warning on his smartphone.

While waiting in the station, he identifies the person from the alert.

The passenger quickly submits a report to the transit police. He simply opens the app,

selects the type of incident to report from a drop-down menu and adds relevant details.

The transit police receive the alert and immediately dispatch the relevant forces closest to

the scene to arrest the suspect.

In this case, transit police relied on reports from the community in order to enhance

their investigation.

STRATEGY 2 Corporate CampusesMost large enterprises have command-and-control centers that operate 24/7 to protect personnel

and assets. In these environments, crowdsourcing is an effective way to expand the capabilities of a

company’s security personnel and can be used in multiple ways:

• Personnel safety on corporate campus and during employee travel

• “See something, say something” campaigns to improve both safety and business operations

• Anonymous tips for safety violations, sexual harassment, theft, etc.

• Geofencing can be used to alert to all employees in a geo-location area during an emergency

• Outgoing public safety announcements during severe weather, active shooter incidents and

other emergencies

By offering an “on-the-scene” perspective, corporate employees can help officials pinpoint the location

of a person in distress, a theft or a workplace safety violation, which can greatly improve response

times. Crowdsourcing encourages employee engagement in both safety and incident response, which

can greatly impact corporate culture.

STRATEGY 3 Higher Education CampusesCrowdsourcing is an ideal fit on university campuses, where student safety is a top priority

and 85% of young adults age 18 to 29 have smartphones.4 Potential uses include:

• Student and faculty personal safety

• “See something, report something” campaigns for vandalism, violence and

safety violations

• Anonymous tips, which allow citizens to send crime tips and potential threats with to

no need authorities to login or download an application

• Geofencing can be used to notify the correct authorities during an emergency:

On campus, the SOS will go to the university emergency service, and off campus

it will go to the city police.

• Outgoing public safety announcements

Today’s universities face a wide range of threats, and crowdsourcing enables students to

take a proactive role in campus safety. It helps to close the communication loop between

students, administrators and safety personnel, which enables faster and more effective

incident response.

4Pew Research, April 2015

85PERCENT

of young adultsage 18 to 29have smartphones.4

Verint Public Safety Solution

The amount of data produced globally is growing at an exponential rate, with some

estimates expecting data production to be up to 44 times greater in 2020 than it was

in 2009.5 City officials, as well as universities and enterprise businesses, must be able

to access relevant information from this staggering amount of data in order to achieve

actionable intelligence.

A key part of the Verint Situation Awareness Platform, Verint Mobile Reporter, is based

on a smartphone app or city portal connected to the command and control center. The

app enables citizens, students and employees to engage directly with officials to report

on safety and security issues. Through citizen inputs, officials are able to achieve better

situational awareness, speed incident response and improve public perception of safety,

security and community involvement.

Information from the application is automatically fed into the city’s incident

management and dispatch system, enabling safety authorities to dispatch the closest,

most relevant and available personnel to the scene. Verint provides a single platform

for command and control centers through which an alert is received, an incident can

be managed and monitored, forces dispatched while maintaining continuous field

communication until incident resolution.

2009

2020

5http://onforb.es/1Hrev8w

Data produced globally is expected to be

44 times greater in 2020 than it was in 2009.5

x44

Verint Public Safety Solution (cont.)

Today, information sharing is the cornerstone of nearly every digital interaction, and

crowdsourcing is an important part of an intelligence-led, problem-solving approach

to community safety. Citizens want to contribute to their community safety and by

offering a convenient and accessible channel to do this creates more opportunity

for engagement with minimal effort on the part of the citizen. By providing critical

intelligence, citizens help safety officials carry out evidence-based, targeted public

safety interventions in a proactive manner to improve safety and security city-wide.

• Send an immediate distress signal when in danger: Local dispatch center and

emergency contacts will be notified and given the user’s location.

• Report crimes, hazards, medical emergencies and more: Let city authorities know

when, where and what kind of help is needed, and add pictures or stream live

video from a smartphone.

• Report anonymously: Send crime tips and potential threats to authorities with no

need to login or download an application.

• Receive alerts of emerging security or safety situations nearby.

• Correlate multiple, overlapping reports into a single incident to reduce loads on

the operations center.

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