Public safety needs to ungergo a transformation driven by technology, according to a global study conducted by Motorola Solutions and Goldsmiths at the University of London’s Dr Chris Brauer.

The study polled 12,000 people and 50 public safety agencies from 10 countries including Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan, to understand how the pandemic has changed perceptions of public safety and the role technology plays.

According to the study, 88% of people want to see public safety transformed through advanced technologies. Further, 71% say these technologies include the cloud, cybersecurity, data analytics, and video cameras.

“Citizens all over the world are coming to terms with what it means to live with COVID-19 and how it impacts their safety. Our shared experience of the pandemic has made us realise that technology can play a far greater role in keeping us safe and has increased our understanding of why public safety and enterprise organisations need it to respond to new threats,” comments Brauer.

The emergency services industry should also be looking to adopt risk prediction supported by advanced technologies, however, the report does not state what these technologies could involve.

The report states, “Where possible, any technologies introduced should help to reduce the burden on them by improving integration across their systems and maximising their use of data. To have the greatest impact on safety, these improvements need to cover every aspect of an agency’s operations – from their command and control environments, which manage and dispatch agency resources and analyse security risks, through to frontline responders who need to communicate seamlessly and respond appropriately in any situation.”

In terms of data privacy, 75% of respondents will trust organisations that use their personal data appropriately.

According to Ambulance Victoria, a growing need to protect patient privacy is driving the need for integrated systems and solutions that uphold the highest security standards possible.

The study also looks at how AI fits into threat analysis situations; just over half (52%) of respondents would trust AI to do so.

Motorola Solutions senior vice president and chief technology officer Mahesh Saptharishi says that organisations need to ensure their technologies are build and understood to be human-centric. 

“For example, artificial intelligence should be designed in a way that respects human decision making and considers the public’s input and needs, while allowing users to make better informed decisions and respond to complex threats. By designing advanced technologies to be assistive, we ensure that the decision-making remains the sole responsibility of humans.”

The study also found that citizens want the benefits of technology to be easily understood and for it to be used in ways that are transparent, fair and inclusive.