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How We Continuously Innovate to Improve Public Safety for Everyone

Matthew Polega, Co-Founder & Head of External Affairs  | 24 July 2020  |  3 minute read

3D illustration of a timeline on kraft paper with focus on 2020 and a blue thumbtack. Year two thousand and twenty

When Mark43 first entered the world of policing technology, we, admittedly, weren’t sure what exact problem we were trying to solve. As founders, we learned about the crime-fighting capabilities of social network analysis in the Harvard engineering class where it became clear public safety tech wasn’t what we hoped it to be. We then dove headfirst into the world of records management with the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Then we embarked on a mission to reinvent CAD after identifying a need in Camden, New Jersey. Shortly thereafter, we added Analytics. Then we expanded our Property and Evidence suite. We reinvented our NIBRS reporting capabilities to make sure our customers are compliant with the FBI’s January 2021 deadline. And recently, we launched the Mark43 Pandemic Preparedness Package to help agencies cope with COVID-19, and our ACT Package to help bridge the community-police gap that was highlighted by the killing of George Floyd in May.

While it appears that we are simply a vendor that builds public safety software solutions, that doesn’t accurately characterize what Mark43 really provides. Instead, we deal in agility. We identify problems, move quickly, and constantly reorient our team to the most important problems facing public safety. We’ve built our entire company around this principle, and all 180+ team members are trained to nimbly shift from one priority to another, as our customers deem necessary. All of the products above are a result of identifying problems in the field and rapidly convening a team to build a solution.

Following George Floyd’s death in May, Mark43 did what it does best – respond to the most important challenges facing public safety. Thirty team members self-organized into tiger teams to address a number of policing topics that came to light in the weeks following May 25th. I’m proud to share the teams’ work below.

Predictive Modeling of Officer Stress

Problem Statement

The likelihood of bad outcomes/excessive use of force increases as officer stress levels increases.

Solution

Mark43 can now capture the rate at which first responders respond to stressful events. We use AI to generate response plans that account for stressed users and send unstressed officers to high-risk incidents.

FBI Use of Force Reporting Compliance

Problem Statement

Agencies are not able to easily capture data for the public, or they find data collection complicated and burdensome. Finally, agencies do not feel they are able to tell a holistic story of the incidents that are occurring.

Solution

Mark43 can now collect and automatically generate the data required by the FBI’s new use-of-force reporting standard.

 

Mark43 Public Data Portal

Problem Statement

Community members are unable to access data about their police departments, which can lead to mistrust in police.

Solution

At an agency’s request, Mark43 can now automatically generate public-facing crime and activity reports, which are available to any community member via the internet.

 

CAD: Dispatch ANY Type of Unit

Problem Statement

Officers are expected to respond to a myriad of issues in which they have relatively less training (mental illness, homelessness, stray animals), in addition to addressing criminal incidents.

Solution

Mark43 expanded our CAD capabilities to allow for any type of first responder to be dispatched, such as crisis intervention workers or social workers.

 

We will continue innovating on behalf of public safety and the communities they serve, and remain on call to solve their hardest problems.

Are you interested in any of the capabilities?  Email info@mark43.com learn more.

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