Creating a Critical Incident Intelligence Center for Public Safety

07/23/21

By:

Constant Technologies

There’s more public safety data out there than ever before. With body cameras, social media alerts, weather radars, traffic cameras, security software and more, it can be a challenge for public safety organizations to organize, track, and take action on all the information they have. That’s why critical incident intelligence centers are emerging as a valuable solution.

Table of Contents

What is a critical incident intelligence center?

All the information in the world is only useful if you have a way to put it into action. A critical incident intelligence center helps you do just that. As a central hub, an operations center can bring various teams together into one place for efficient collaboration. Having all the information and decision makers in a single location means that data can quickly be turned into action. The end result is that your public safety operators can be proactive, not just reactive. Critical incident intelligence centers — also referred to as real time crime centers, real time operations centers, and real time intelligence centers — allow for advanced detection, rapid communication, and efficient response. In this field, seconds can make all the difference. An incident intelligence center helps shorten your response time while making more effective use of the information you have.

The benefits of an intelligence center

The ultimate goal of a critical incident intelligence center is to ensure public safety, and it achieves that in a number of ways.

These centers can help your agency:

Increase productivity through an efficient workflow
Provide real-time situational awareness as incidents unfold
Monitor agency assets and critical infrastructure
Execute your policing strategy more effectively
Support collaboration among analysts and investigators
Reduce incident response time

How to create an incident intelligence center

While each operations center is unique, there are key elements that are standard across the board: a central video wall for data sharing, a control system for informational display, and console desks.

The video wall is the focal point for any incident intelligence center and one of the most important investments. It combines information from a wide variety of sources to display to all operators in the space. It’s vital to carefully design this feature because it serves as the main informational hub for the entire space.

Control systems are user-friendly interfaces that allow for quick switching between the sources displayed on the video wall so you can access different data sources at a moment’s notice. Elements that need to be considered in the design of your control system include the number of video walls the controller will support, the quantity and types of content sources, and how many sources will need to be displayed and controlled at once.

Even the furniture in a critical incident intelligence center serves a functional, not just aesthetic, purpose. Factors such as how many monitors will be mounted at each station, needs for storage capacity and cooling, cable management, and durability as well as aesthetics such as the colors in relation to the design of space are all important when building out your ops center.

Luckily, Constant walks you through each step of the process of creating your intelligence center. With our innovative video wall systems, console furniture, and programming solutions, you can stay one step ahead of crime and protect public safety in your jurisdiction. We will work with you as a partner from the initial design process all the way through post-installation service and support.

To learn more about our critical incident intelligence center solutions and to receive a free design and budget consultation, contact us today.

About Constant:

Constant Technologies, Inc. provides AV integration for 24/7 video walls and custom operation center furniture. With 30+ years of experience, we can work with sensitive environments in the public and private sectors. Constant designs and installs projects of all scopes and sizes around the world. We also offer long-term service and support. We create solutions with the highest levels of security, aesthetics and functionality in mind.