By: Kaitlyn Levinson

In the coming year, artificial intelligence and other tech solutions will be key for understaffed law enforcement agencies looking to keep their communities safe.

Police departments have long grappled with staff, budget and capacity shortages that impede their ability to catch and mitigate crime and deliver justice to communities. Experts say tech, especially artificial intelligence, will help fill worker and service delivery gaps in the new year and beyond. 

The exploration and use of automation and analytics among law enforcement agencies ramped up in 2024, particularly as a potential “force multiplier” for short-staffed police agencies, said Jim Burch, president of the National Policing Institute, a research organization. 

In the few years post-pandemic, police agencies are steadily recovering from staffing shortages, according to an April survey of 214 law enforcement agencies from the Police Executive Research Forum. Respondent data showed that 11,089 sworn officers were hired last year, up from 8,558 in 2020. 

But many law enforcement agencies, particularly larger-sized departments, which the report identified as having more than 250 employees, still struggle to attract and retain law enforcement staff. 

“They don’t have the ability to hire more staff to do the things they need to do, whether that be accountability processes, compliance checks or analytics,” Burch said. “I think [police agencies] are really looking forward to a time where technology can be that force multiplier to give them some of the answers they need without having to hire a lot of new staff to do that.” 

Indeed a report released earlier this year from Mark43 found that “a majority of U.S. first responders and law enforcement not only support AI integration but also trust their agencies to use it responsibly” and that “law enforcement’s appetite for AI is increasing year over year.” 

Burch pointed to drafting police incident reports as one of “the hottest conversations right now” regarding how law enforcement agencies can leverage AI. In 2025 and beyond, authorities will continue to explore not only how AI could help streamline and speed up the reporting process, he said, but also offer more detailed summaries than what human staff could capture. 

AI could also play a larger role in other processes like body camera footage review, Burch said. Some agencies across the U.S. have already begun exploring and researching AI’s ability to, for instance, assess officers’ performance during citizen interactions based on camera footage. 

But as the hype of AI follows governments into 2025, “there needs to be responsible AI principles that govern the implementation of these tools,” Thomas Randall, lead researcher of AI market analysis at Info-Tech Research Group. Agencies should also consider implementing AI in low-stakes use cases, such as automating nonemergency phone calls, as they experiment with the tech’s potential. 

The Mark43 report also underscored how important it is for agencies to develop comprehensive AI governance frameworks to manage risks associated with the technology, like inaccurate or biased results. It also highlighted that public safety agencies should collaborate with trusted AI vendors with expertise in its implementation and compliance.  

Burch added that police agencies will maintain focus on other technologies like gunshot detection and license plate reader tech, despite ongoing concerns that such solutions could lead to overpolicing in minority communities.

Several major cities across the U.S., for instance, have stopped using the popular gunshot detection system ShotSpotter citing concerns over its cost, bias and inefficacy. 

In 2025, Burch said he anticipates that law enforcement agencies will continue to leverage these tech solutions with a stronger focus on responsible deployment, instead of turning them on and assuming they’ll work. 

As long as police departments still lack the numbers to have officers ready on every street to detect and respond to public safety threats, technology like AI and crime detection and prediction tools must plug critical service gaps. 

But “clearly, there’s acknowledgement of the need to mitigate risk [and] to be accountable for the use of technologies,” Burch said. “My sense is that as we go forward, the encouragement to use the technology in responsible ways will likely outweigh those who are seeking to curtail [their] use.”

Original Story: https://www.route-fifty.com/public-safety/2023/07/states-stiffen-penalties-fentanyl-despite-public-health-concerns/388727/

The majority of everyday users have little understanding of the role data centers play in the global technology system. But without data centers storing, processing and managing vast (and ever-growing) amounts of data, the digital services we rely on—from websites to apps and from generative AI to e-commerce—wouldn’t be possible.

As we increasingly depend on instantaneous access to data for work, commerce, research, entertainment and more, the challenges of maintaining sustainable, reliable data centers are growing, with the explosion in AI usage adding fuel to the fire. Fortunately, along with challenges are coming cutting-edge solutions (including some powered by—you guessed it—AI). Below, members of Forbes Technology Council discuss both the complications and innovations they see coming to data center management in the near term.

1. The Rise Of Specialty Cloud Providers

Launching new data centers is increasingly difficult due to power and grid constraints. Many enterprises cannot afford to expand or build new data centers, so specialty GPU and AI cloud providers have emerged to fill the gap, using renewable energy and advanced cooling technologies to keep costs low while providing faster, better networking. This will give them a competitive advantage over hyperscalers, for a time. – Liran Zvibel, WEKA

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2. A Spike In Power Demand

One emerging data center trend is sustainability. Key studies predict that the demand for data center electricity will increase by anywhere from 160% to 200% by 2030, in part due to the rise of AI and cryptocurrency mining. Key strategies to mitigate this spike in power demand include developing more energy-efficient hardware, utilizing more renewable energy sources and optimizing current cooling systems. – Michael Dennis, CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society

3. The Addition Of Renewable Energy Sources

The demand for AI is having a significant impact on delivering data center needs. The use of renewable energy (such as solar, wind and tidal) and liquid cooling is critical to ensuring a balance of growth and achieving sustainable and green IT charters for the future. – Mike Kiersey, Workato

4. AI Racks Will Test Power Limits

Toward the end of five years, the industry will be deploying AI server racks with densities over 200 kw per rack. We can actually cool those densities with the liquid cooling technologies that we have today, but getting that much power to the rack exceeds the physical limits of today’s copper busbar and wires. Voltages need to rise to 1000 or 1500 V (probably DC). – Steven Carlini, Schneider Electric

5. Need To Optimize Software And Hardware

The power demands of data centers will continue to increase exponentially over the next five years. This is a huge issue for both the planet and data center builders and operators. Data centers exist to run software (including distributed ledger technology and AI). It will become increasingly important to understand and optimize the performance of both software and hardware to ensure power and sustainability considerations are met. – Christopher Dean, Digital Tactics Ltd.

6. Workforce Shortages

One major emerging trend is the need to address workforce shortages, especially in roles critical for physical data center operations like HVAC and infrastructure engineering. With the existing workforce maturing and fewer people entering these fields, the industry faces a talent gap that must be filled to maintain growth over the next five years. – Ryan Mallory, Flexential

7. The Integration Of Quantum Computers

Early fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of performing computations beyond the capability of the most powerful supercomputers will become a reality within the next five years. Integration of these systems into high-performance computing data centers will be an increasing trend over the next few years. Early applications will include chemistry simulation, materials science research and new AI algorithms. – Paul Lipman, Infleqtion

8. A Growth In Edge Computing

New applications and data volumes are placing rigorous demands on data centers. The growth of edge computing will play a big role in solving these issues. Keeping data and processing power closer to the source enhances both performance (latency) and efficiency (capacity and power demands). There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but edge computing will help and is a trend to follow. – Scott Williams, Orange Business

9. Bioengineered Cooling Solutions

Bioengineered cooling solutions will emerge as a revolutionary trend. We’ll see data centers utilizing genetically modified microorganisms to manage heat dissipation and even convert waste heat into usable energy. This fusion of biotechnology and computing infrastructure could redefine what we consider “green” data centers. – Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC

10. More Secure Chip Design

Cyberattacks remain a critical challenge for the next decade, driving demand for advanced chip-level security. Hyperscalers are advancing projects like OpenTitan to create secure, trustworthy chip designs. This ensures both hardware and software integrity, enabling secure boot processes with verified firmware and protecting against low-level malware, significantly boosting data center resilience. – Dipesh Ranjan, Cyble, Inc.

11. Real-Time Energy Monitoring And Management

With energy demands projected to grow annually, the industry must ensure sufficient energy availability to sustain growth. As power needs surge, the risk of shortages could hinder AI-driven advancements. This will drive the rise of technology that enhances real-time energy monitoring and demand management, helping data centers operate within grid constraints while preserving capacity for innovation. – Jennifer Nuckles, R-Zero

12. A Focus On Error-Correction And Software-Hardware Co-Design

Moving data at faster speeds and running chips in environments with higher power densities and more heat lead to more errors, which impact uptime and the accuracy and quality of results. Hardware components must include more error-correction features, and there must be better co-design between software and hardware to build more resilient systems that improve uptime through techniques like fail-in-place. – Steven Woo, Rambus

13. Use Of AI To Improve Energy Efficiency

There’s a lot of talk about how the use of AI leads to high energy consumption. However, what we also need to think about is that there will be a lot of innovation focused on leveraging AI to not only bring energy consumption down, but also to dramatically improve data center energy efficiency in general. – Abdul Muqtadir Mohammed Zubair, Snapchat

14. On-Site Power Generation

Instead of relying solely on the centralized grid, data centers are turning to decentralized energy solutions, including islanded microgrid solutions, to solve time-to-power issues and handle the highly fluctuating loads of AI data centers. By generating power on-site, these systems reduce dependency on external energy sources to enhance resilience, predict costs and reduce environmental impact. – Ravi Prasher, Bloom Energy

15. Intelligent Hardware Security

As data centers become an increasingly hot target for cybercriminals, a major trend will be the integration of intelligent hardware security into data centers. This approach provides holistic and proactive security against dynamic threats, ranging from physical on-site protection within each server rack to real-time monitoring, detection and recovery, ensuring business continuity and heightened security. – Camellia Chan, Flexxon

16. A Shift To The Cloud

An emerging trend in data centers is the push to virtualize and move as many operations to the cloud as possible. This shift reduces risk and operational burden while transferring critical security responsibilities to third-party experts. As a result, organizations can focus more on innovation and less on costly infrastructure management. – Matthew Polega, Mark43

17. Flash Storage For Backup And Recovery

There’s been a shift in data protection strategies, with businesses increasingly turning to flash storage for backup and rapid recovery. Since ransomware attacks may be unavoidable, the focus has shifted to minimizing their impact by restoring operations swiftly. This strategy reduces downtime and boosts cyber resilience, making flash storage a cornerstone of future-ready data protection strategies. – Jamie Lerner, Quantum Corporation

18. The Rise Of Zero-Trust Architecture

One emerging trend in data centers that’s set to reshape the industry is the rise of zero-trust architecture paired with more adaptive, AI-driven security protocols. With cyberthreats evolving daily, these technologies will ensure that every bit of data—from core to edge—remains protected, making security the cornerstone of data center innovation. – Siranjeevi Dheenadhayalan

Original Story: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2024/12/19/data-centers-18-challenges-and-solutions-on-the-horizon/

Mark43 Co-Founder and President Matt Polega joins Neil C. Hughes on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Tune in now: https://techblogwriter.co.uk/mark43/

In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, we dive into the heart of modern policing with Matt Polega, co-founder and president of Mark43. A recent survey by Mark43 revealed a striking demand among UK residents for greater police presence. But how can technology bridge the gap between public expectations and police resources?

Matt joins us to discuss how modernized, resilient technology like Mark43’s can enable police forces to increase their street presence without necessarily adding more personnel. We’ll explore how real-time data sharing between neighboring police forces and partner agencies is becoming a game-changer in crime prevention and response.

Matt also sheds light on the critical advantages of systems that update in real-time, allowing officers to respond faster and more effectively to incidents as they unfold.

We also discuss the importance of having robust backup emergency dispatch systems to maintain operations during outages, ensuring that police forces are always ready and resilient in the face of emergencies.

Our conversation will also touch on the broader implications of technology in policing—how it transforms not just operational efficiency but also public perception of police forces. Trust, safety, and responsiveness are at the forefront of this transformation, potentially reshaping community interactions with law enforcement.

Finally, we’ll tackle some tough questions about the adoption of modern systems within UK police forces. What are the challenges they face, particularly regarding costs, complexity, and the perception that public sectors lag behind the private sector in technological adoption.

Loking forward, what does the future hold for policing in the UK, especially with the integration of AI, real-time data analytics, and cloud-based systems? Join us as we explore these critical issues and envision the future of policing—a future where technology empowers law enforcement to better serve and protect communities while enhancing public safety and trust.

How do you think emerging technologies will shape the future of community policing?

Mark43 today announced the results of a U.S. national survey of first responders, revealing strong support for AI adoption, concerns about cybersecurity, and a growing demand for cloud-native, data-driven, and interoperable computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management systems (RMS) to improve efficiency and public safety outcomes. A new 2025 U.S. Public Safety Trends Report released today documents the complete survey results.

“Public safety agencies across the United States are grappling with challenges such as cyberattacks, legacy system outages, and the resilience and efficiency of their operations,” said Bob Hughes, CEO of Mark43. “To address these concerns, first responders are seeking cloud-native, mobile, and data-driven public safety CAD and RMS systems that strengthen security, enhance resilience, and also drive efficiency and better outcomes. A strong foundation—with a unified, open, and interoperable CAD and RMS—is essential. By leveraging Mark43’s real-time operating system, public safety agencies can build on this foundation, enabling them to improve the safety, security, and quality of life in the communities they serve.”

First responders want AI for efficiency and improved outcomes.

• Nearly all (90%) of law enforcement support their agencies using AI, an increase of 55% over last year’s survey. A majority (65%) say it would help them be more productive and efficient, and a strong majority (89%) think that leveraging AI would help their agencies reduce crime.
• A majority (88%) of law enforcement trust their agencies to use AI responsibly. This is a 29% increase over last year’s survey.
• A majority (87%) of law enforcement believe AI is transforming the public safety industry for the better. The reasons they cite are largely efficiency improvements that include streamlining report writing, speedy data processing, enhanced analytics, more easily locating certain crimes, and generally improving productivity.

First responders are concerned about cybersecurity and resilience.

• Eighty-four percent of law enforcement acknowledge that their organization experienced a cybersecurity issue in the last year. Respondents reported that scam calls, malware, and viruses were the top issues.
• Over half (57%) of first responders cite that their RMS is typically unavailable for over 10 hours a year due to software updates, and 54% say the same for their CAD system. Furthermore, over two-thirds (68%) of law enforcement have experienced on-premises system outages due to a lack of updated technology.
• A near-total majority (95%) of public safety professionals cited at least one outage or technology malfunction in the last year. This is an increase of 8% over last year’s survey.
• Eighty-five percent of first responders believe disruptive events such as power grid failures, hurricanes, and wildfires can overwhelm public safety agencies.
• A near-total majority (89%) of law enforcement are concerned with how their agencies running on legacy systems would handle a tactical response during major events like sports, political conventions, concerts, or natural disasters and cyberattacks.
• A majority of public safety professionals (83%) believe the general public would feel better if their local public safety agencies were required to adhere to federal government security standards, like FedRAMP, which mandates a premier and standardized approach to security and risk assessment for cloud technologies.

First responders want data-driven public safety for improved outcomes.

• A majority (86%) of public safety professionals believe data reporting processes could be improved at their organizations and cite the top reason is to save time.
• Seventy-two percent of law enforcement agencies have a real-time crime center, and 92% report they are effective in enhancing first responder and officer response.
• Sixty-nine percent of law enforcement reported a real-time crime center would benefit their agency and agencies in their community, with the top three benefits cited as improved intelligence for greater future efficiency, improved public safety, and faster response times to emergency calls.
• Three-quarters (78%) of law enforcement agencies use analytics or business intelligence tools to analyze crime and internal data, with 87% reporting it would be helpful to have them integrated into the records management system. The top three benefits of these tools that respondents cite are helping them understand crime patterns, increase operational efficiency, and support case investigations and pattern identification.
• Eighty-three percent of first responders think there should be greater crime data and statistics transparency with the general public. This sentiment has grown 26% since 2022 in the 2023 U.S. Public Safety Trends Report.

Public safety professionals call for an integrated modern platform and mobility for optimal efficiency.

• Three-quarters (76%) of law enforcement have spent more than half their shifts completing paperwork, with 70% having to use overtime to do so.
• Eighty-eight percent of law enforcement acknowledge that new, modern technology processes would help them better serve the community.
• A near-total majority (97%) of law enforcement agree that tools saving time from typing the same information multiple times in a report would make an impact.
• The majority (65%) of first responders have had to return to a physical location to fill out reports, which is a 7% increase since last year’s survey. Furthermore, 55% of surveyed first responders need to be at their agency’s office to fulfill their duties. However, there is a desire for more flexible working arrangements, including 80% of emergency telecommunicators who would be more likely to extend their career if there were an option for remote work.
• Over half (51%) of law enforcement have to log in to four to six applications for their role on a daily basis. This reflects an industry need for integrated systems that eliminate application silos and streamline manual processes to save time and resources.
• A strong majority (88%) of law enforcement feel that switching between multiple applications affects their efficiency in completing tasks. Almost all (99%) of law enforcement states it would be helpful to have a single, consolidated CAD and RMS platform that integrates all of the data sources they currently use.
• Eighty percent of law enforcement use their mobile phones as part of everyday work tasks. Eighty-seven percent of law enforcement would find it helpful if they had more information about the location they are responding to on their mobile devices, and 82% cite that having CAD and RMS on their mobile devices would increase confidence and efficiency.
• Nearly two-thirds (63%) of law enforcement cited an increase in requests for record expungement due to new state laws, and over three-fourths (85%) find it challenging to manage record sealing or expungement processes in their jurisdictions.

The Mark43 2025 U.S. Public Safety Trends report includes complete survey results and trends.

Using the expertise of emergency responders collected through the survey, insight from Mark43 customers, and input from leading luminaries in public safety, the Mark43 2025 U.S. Public Safety Trends Report identifies the following emerging trends that will impact public safety in 2025 and beyond:

1. AI for accelerating public safety operations
2. Cybersecurity and resiliency go hand in hand.
3. Data-driven public safety for improved community outcomes
4. Comprehensive platform powers innovation

“In 2025, leading public safety agencies will embrace cloud-native systems and AI to enhance efficiency, strengthen cybersecurity and resilience, improve mobility, and optimize resource allocation—ultimately enabling them to serve their communities more effectively,” said Hughes.

Survey methodology

A national online survey of 538 public safety professionals was conducted by Propeller Insights between October 2 and October 23, 2024. Respondents opted into an online database; from there, they were targeted based on demographics. To further confirm qualifications, respondents were asked to verify their information in the survey itself with self-identifying qualifications. The maximum margin of sampling error was +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Original Story: https://www.securityinfowatch.com/ai/press-release/55249588/first-responders-embrace-ai-voice-cyber-concerns-in-mark43-public-safety-report

by: Edward Segal

NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — A new national survey of first responders published today revealed strong support for the use of artificial intelligence at work, highlighting the growth of law enforcement’s trust in the technology.

Mark43, a mission-critical public safety platform, partners with Propeller Insights to conduct the study every year, and surveyed 538 public safety professionals in October for this year’s report.

The study found a 55% increase in law enforcement support of AI adoption since last year. In addition, the survey revealed concerns about cybersecurity and a growing demand for cloud-native, data-driven, and interoperable computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management systems (RMS) to improve efficiency and public safety outcomes.

The survey found that 90% of law enforcement officers support their agencies using AI, and found a few reasons for that:

• 65% say it would help increase productivity and efficiency
• 89% think it would help their agencies reduce crime
• 87% believe it is transforming public safety for the better due to efficiency in report writing, enhanced analytics, and more easily locating crimes

88% of law enforcement officers trust their agencies to use AI responsibly. Last year, that number was 59%. Officers and first responders also have concerns relating to cybersecurity and operations. They were asked how often they have issues with RMS, CAD, and other things:

• 84% of law enforcement said their organization had a cybersecurity issue over the last year, such as scam calls, malware, and viruses
• 57% say their RMS is typically unavailable for over 10 hours a year due to software updates
• 54% say their CAD system is typically unavailable for over 10 hours a year due to software updates
• 68% have experienced system outages due to a lack of updated technology
• 95% of public safety professionals experienced at least one outage or technology malfunction in the last year

Due to these technological issues, 85% say public safety agencies are overwhelmed by events like wildfires, hurricanes, and power grid failures, and 89% are concerned with how their agencies running on legacy systems would handle tactical responses during major events.

The majority of people working in public safety also believe AI can improve data reporting processes.

• 86% believe data reporting processes can be improved, mostly to save time
• 72% of agencies have a Real Time Crime Center, and 92% say it’s effective in enhancing officer response
• 69% believe having a Real Time Crime Center would benefit their agency by increasing efficiency, improving response times and improving public safety
• 78% use analytics or business intelligence tools to analyze crime data, and 87% report that integrating them into the records management system would improve pattern identification

83% of first responders believe there should be greater crime data transparency with the public, and this would help them in doing so.

Officers also agree that AI would have an impact on the efficiency of creating reports, which would allow them to spend more time out in the field.

• 76% of law enforcement officers say they have spent more than half their shifts completing paperwork, and 70% had to use overtime to do so
• 88% say having new technology would help them better serve the community, and 97% say having tools to keep them from typing the same thing multiple times would make an impact
• 65% have had to return to a physical location to fill out reports
• 51% have to log 4-6 applications for their role on a daily basis, and 88% say switching between them affects their efficiency
• 99% say a consolidated CAD and RMS system would improve efficiency, and 82% would find it helpful if they had these programs on their phones
• 63% cited that record expungement requests have increased, and 85% find it difficult to manage the process

The report identified four emerging trends that are expected to impact public safety in 2025, predicting that agencies will embrace cloud-native systems and AI to improve efficiency, strengthen cybersecurity and resilience, improve mobility, and optimize resource allocation. The report says this will ultimately enable first responders to serve their communities more effectively.

Visit the Mark43 website to see the full report.

Original Story: https://www.kxnet.com/news/top-stories/survey-of-first-responders-shows-strong-ai-support/