Chief Technology Officer of Hexagon’s Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division.
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If you watch the news or read the morning headlines, you’re sure to be bombarded with calls for increased transparency from government and public safety agencies.
There is plenty of information the public would like to easily access: daily crime reports mapped and made available online; traffic cameras that give drivers a sneak peek at their commute; offender registries detailing where the worst released convicts live; and video and audio from body and dashboard cameras.
Creating greater transparency, given all this available data, is a complicated, multifaceted initiative. To be successful, it requires several layers of technology to provide the needed insights that could lead to positive change in community relations.
Citizen Access
Too much data can be a challenge. Storing, managing and analyzing it is a monumental task on its own. Beyond data collecting, data sharing is also a complicated problem to solve.
One solution to balancing transparency in data sharing and public trust is a citizen access portal, which gives community members a digital conduit to report crimes to police or report simpler matters like potholes and public nuisances to the city. Leveraging Next Generation 911 tools also allows people to send data to emergency communications centers via text, video or even footage from a drone or doorbell security camera.
Data sharing from the public doesn’t even have to be an official transaction with the government. Smartphone videos of an incident in progress or public works complaints already often end up on social media where they can spur government action.
Transparency Vs. Privacy
Unfortunately, full transparency is rarely achievable when agencies must consider individuals’ privacy. It may seem easy to release incident videos from bodycams and dashcams to fulfill the public’s right to know, but the agency must first protect the privacy of bystanders or even confidential informants. The public often expects that footage is to be released immediately, but in reality, the video might take weeks to review and redact.
So how do agencies avoid protests and public conflict with grieving families or concerned citizens? They may not be able to altogether, but public angst could be toned down if procedures and timelines for releasing such videos are published and made public in advance. At the very least, agencies can be transparent in their procedures, even when legal factors keep them from releasing all the data they have promptly.
Growing that trust from the public also requires internal vigilance against cyber threats. Agencies should shore up their cybersecurity protocols by instituting best practices such as password protection and multifactor authentication. They should also back up and encrypt their data and make sure employees are getting regular training in cyber threat awareness.
Ahead Of The Game
In addition to the data agencies are already collecting, more requirements are likely coming from the federal government. Presidents Trump and Biden have each signed executive orders mandating the creation of a national database regarding the use of force and other police actions, indicating a trend toward mandated transparency.
In the future, the Department of Justice is launching the National Law Enforcement Accountability database, and public safety agencies need to be ready to comply when it goes online by having modern, searchable and shareable data management solutions.
Local agencies that can tell their communities they are ahead of the game in collecting and sharing accountability data can take a big step forward in regaining public trust. Part of that step should be opening the curtain and letting the public see some of the data for themselves.
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