First Responders Could Gain From Soldiers’ Use of iPhones
The following Newsweek article discusses how the military is now using iPhones in the field as a mobile platform to do everything from receiving real-time information in the field (including from drones and sensors), to helping them communicate better with locals (through translation software and using graphics and video) to – well its uses are only limited by the imagination. While I am acutely aware that much of what the military does cannot be easily transferred to the first responder community (since there are such vastly different rules of engagement and command and control), this is different. This is one case that I think the first responder community should take a serious look at what the military is doing.
As discussed in my web 2.0 white paper, this is something that can be of tremendous benefit to the first responder community. The mobility of these platforms will enable practitioners to obtain a tremendous amount of the information, normally only available through a PC or laptop, whenever and wherever they need it. This would be a world where the practitioners receive alerts, technical assistance, and information concerning specific activities and communicate with those they need to through something as common as a cell phone. It would also be a world where practitioners in the field would be able to provide information in real time to their command post whether it is an emergency operations center, a dispatch center, or fusion center.
What’s exciting is some of this is already happening in the field. Notably, the Virginia Emergency Operations Center is working with Blackberries to help them remotely do damage assessments and to link to the Virginia Interoperability Platform for Emergency Response (VIPER). VIPER is a statewide emergency operations platform that seamlessly provides geospatial and other data sources as well as analytical capabilities to enable Virginia’s emergency response community with a common operating picture and analytical platform. Virginia is one of the participants in the Virtual USA initiative being supported by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T).
The Department of Homeland Security is working on this as well. DHS S&T, through its Command, Control and Interoperability (CCI) Division, has done extensive testing of various kinds of hand held devices to enable law enforcement to remotely obtain information, such as linking to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, or to obtain motor vehicle information. CCI is taking this further to identify what are the criteria required to enable first responders to use these devices for broader applications while maintaining privacy, security, access control and ensuring that the battery life is sufficient.
In any event, take note of this trend. This is the future of communications and information sharing. The kind of device is not what’s important. What is important is putting these capabilities in the hands of first responders.
