Smart Government, Safe Communities

Interview with Rik Legault, Director of Office for Public Safety Research (OPSR) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate, First Responders Group (FRG) About OPSR The office serves as science and technology advisor to the agency, the public, and frontline first responders. OPSR houses the social, behavioral, and economic science capabilities, law enforcement, digital forensics, and protection of national critical infrastructure. The office has a broad mandate with a great deal of need throughout the department and the Homeland Security Enterprise - any state, local, first responder, or public or private entity that contributes to DHS. Their work includes: Evaluation research and support Development of new capabilities by helping people develop new procedures, policies, and techniques based in evidence; and Analysis of those data to improve understanding and operational success What are the challenges of measuring R&D? There is incentive to successfully provide something to someone, but there is not the same amount of understanding if you are trying to make a mission impact. It costs money. If something works properly, then you get credit for it working properly. If it does not work, people are worried about negative impact on their lives and careers. In the past the Department of Justice has required up to 20% of the total budget for projects to be spent on evaluation. At the end of the investment, it is important to make sure that you are not doing harm. It is important to be able to understand what you were getting out of that investment in the real world. Even if the thing you developed does everything it is supposed to do, it may not have the outcomes that you desire or were thinking of when creating it. For example, George Mason has a center for evidence based crime policy. They did a report on license plate reading technology and found that it changed the way officers spent time on the job without having an impact on their clearance rates. How can you think through those outcomes? The objectives need to be understood from the beginning and there can be an increase in randomized trials to understand implementation of technology. You can figure out how the products are used and how users spend their time. You can better understand benefits, detractions, and unintended consequences - positive and negative. Examples at S&T S&T developed a training system for TSA to better identify threats when looking at images of bags. Lots of money was invested in better scanner technology, but none was invested in how people were performing their jobs. We did research with TSA and compared them to non-trained professionals. Our technology helped determine what they were missing when looking at different parts of the bag and provide instant feedback for instructors to improve search. Without increasing time it took to scan, we could have an immediate, long-term 2% increase in accuracy. When you extrapolate, that equates to millions of threats found per year. Most Common Errors with R&D Programs Culture kills - there is a lot of pushback. People need to understand that all of our findings will be provided in context and with recommendations. It is hard to get people to understand that I am here to help. In other areas it is more prevalent - medicine, local policing - there are more incentives to engage with researchers to understand what you are doing well and what you are not. They want to identify their own problems and fix them early. If you can identify the problem, understand what is causing it, and articulate your plan to fix it, you are always much better off than if someone else discovers your problem. Independence and objectivity are important and that leads to credibility with the right expertise. Quick Experiments It is important for evaluators to be involved from the beginning. The evaluation team is thinking entirely about data and measurement for your objective. It works well in spiral development if you involve evaluators from beginning because they can adjust and collect data from the beginning. Collection can be really effectively done ahead of time if you have an evaluation plan. No one thinks about evaluation until after the fact, and then there is no baseline and data is hard to get. Big Data Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and big data are very popular. They are not new concepts - as the technology develops, thinking about how we can apply technology in a smart way is important. Programs that combine data science and behavioral science are vitally important. It is important to understand that correlation is not causation - causation requires time order. Did the cause come before the effect? Does it involve mathematical correlation? Did you eliminate all other causal factors? Measurement error occurs when you are talking about people because they do not behave like machines. Theory is very important to social science to determine causation - many big data efforts lack coherent theory. Combining people with backgrounds in strongly theoretical fields is important and will help move tech into reasonable use faster. Want to Know More? Vist Firstresponder.gov for products, documents, and summaries of work S&T has also Facebook and Twitter @dhsscitech

State of Public Safety Communications in North Carolina North Carolina has a strong state interoperability executive committee whose membership has good ideas and provides great direction. The state has a good statewide land mobile radio (LMR) system called the voice interoperability plan for emergency responders (VIPER). The system was designed for portable radio coverage throughout the state and serves not only as the interoperability platform, but also the day to day platform for many of counties and local municipalities. With about 30 LMR systems in the state, there are opportunities to collaborate and address interoperability. Grasso views himself as a resource for the decision makers. There are many state agencies involved with the first responder community, and they have to make their own decisions addressing broadband and their agency’s needs. There is the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network being provided by FirstNet built with AT&T, but there other carriers offering very similar services. The executive committee has to think about what interoperability means, how to make sure the first responder community is supported, how information is exchanged, what applications can be used, and how to make sure everyone has the access they need. Questions and Issues Grasso believes in crawl, walk, run when it comes to public safety broadband. In the crawl stage, an agency evaluates the carrier to meet the needs of today – agencies do not want to lose any functionality, but should also consider additional benefits. “There is a lot of time and energy being put on the run portion of where we’re going, that people kind of forget the crawl.” In the walk stage, after a provider is chosen, there are more questions regarding interoperability. Agencies are not sure if their carrier can easily exchange data with an agency that uses a different carrier. Professional conversations and marketing materials make the current situation cloudy. This is the conversation that will be happening in the next three to five years. However, it is important to understand the run stage that will be happening about 10 years from now. Evolving Uses of Broadband “If you’ve ever been to one fire station in the United States, you’ve been to one fire station...when you talk about one station individually, that changes the conversation.” Adoption is different from agency to agency. Grasso is very excited about the technology. There is a ton of research on a digital assistant that will provide information about the incident or maybe all of the history of a location. There is also excitement about virtual reality, augmented reality, apps, and devices. “I think it will be very interesting to see how much technology adjusts operations and how much operations impacts technology.” It’s a two way street. What makes NC unique? “We’re taking a look at statewide [interoperability], not just state level.” North Carolina has the executive committee, a fulltime SWIC in emergency management, a separate SPOC, and a separate statewide LMR manager – but the 3 of them have great personal and professional relationships. The level of collaboration between public safety agencies is exceptional, especially when considering the high number in such a small geographic area. One of the greatest opportunities for North Carolina is recognizing that all of the individual agencies have the authority for their jurisdiction, and the state has an opportunity to make sure their voice is heard. Trends and Issues Nationwide The important conversations are about where this country is going to be at when we are running. As a nation, we need to determine what data interoperability will look like, what local control looks like, and what the applications and technology will look like – Nationwide is the perfect place to have some of those conversations. North Carolina is adding their voice to make sure their needs are met, but not so forceful as to silo themselves into separate polices. “I think the biggest ground that we broke was to have the vision to create the first responder emerging technologies program, so we’ve got a permanent program…We were able to get a program in North Carolina that’s focused on this.”

Interview with Sally Fay, Communications & Outreach Director and Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC) for the State of Indiana State of Public Safety Communications in Indiana Indiana recently completed building a statewide land mobile radio (LMR) 700/800 Mhz system. The P25 system has about 160 sites and nearly 90,000 users in all 92 Indiana counties with 95% guaranteed portable and on the street coverage. With operations and maintenance costs of $100 Million over the next 20 years, Indiana promises users the system will be available during broadband transition and will provide the latest in hardware and software technology for years to come. Indiana Integrated Public Safety Commission The Indiana Integrated Public Safety Commission existed before 9/11 and served as a model for much public safety legislation that came after. In the mid 2000s, the Indiana Commission added a statewide interoperability executive committee that has representatives from each of the 10 homeland security districts. The committee is the working group for the state, serving as the policymakers, and advising on grants and other policies and procedures. The Future of Broadband in Indiana Planning is a broad term because everyone, including First Responders, are using broadband. “The key is embracing the technology and have the policies and procedures to back it up. [Sally] thinks one of the biggest challenges obviously is the data sharing agreements that you need - the management and storage policies.” All communications activities now include consideration for FirstNet implementation and guidance. Indiana already has close to 5,000 active devices on FirstNet in the state. FirstNet Applications and Services in Indiana Video is an important component - one considerable factor is how to get the video from the officer to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) or state agency. Many state and local agencies in Indiana are using drones for search and rescue. “The use of the technology is already there, but FirstNet will obviously give us the pipeline to deliver it.” Several weeks ago, there was a school shooting in Noblesville - the first place in Indiana to go all FirstNet. Official reports have not been released, but it seemed the system worked well. Commercial users experienced inability to use the networks, while all the first responders were able to connect and operate normally because they had FirstNet. Indiana as a Home Rule State “We have a good working relationship at the county level, and in most cases at the agency level, across the state. There is a lot of trust. We trust locals to make their own decisions; they trust that we will work with them. That’s how we tackle it here in Indiana.” Indiana is a home rule state and the locals have the ability to make their own decisions. The Commission’s governance structure and outreach program has been very effective in their ability to get everyone into the same room and talk about FirstNet and interoperability. The give and take between locals at the county level and at the district level is a real success story. “FirstNet - that’s a game changer for public safety. The fact that this nationwide broadband network exists now. It is uncharted territory. We are pioneers as we start to define these policies and procedures and how to use it. But that technology is absolutely amazing and breathtaking in its scope.”

Interview with Charles Werner, Chair, National Council on Public Safety UAS (NCPSU) Background Charles Werner has 44 years experience in public safety with 37 years of service with the Charlottesville, Virginia fire department. Werner served his last 10 years of tenure as fire chief (2005-2015). Involved with national initiatives, and known as the technology fire chief, Werner began exploring unmanned aircraft systems to see what they had to offer public safety. After retiring, he became senior advisor to Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM). Werner began his UAS journey when he personally bought a drone and flew it himself to assess the utility, ease of operation, cost. “If I could do it, it made sense that anyone else in public safety could do it as well.” He saw early technology adoption by some fire departments and wanted to share knowledge, build the lessons learned, and decrease barriers to entry. Public Safety Applications In 2015, Werner wrote an article for Firehouse Magazine outlining his throughs on the potential UAS offered for fire service and public safety - many of which are now being done today. Drones are being used on the west coast shoreline for shark patrol and throughout the United States for HazMat response and search and rescue operations, as well as in Europe and Australia. Drones provide the ability to stream activity in real time resulting in increased situational awareness and better ability to respond. “They give an incident commander or emergency manager a much better idea of what they’re dealing with so their situational awareness is better...the more information we have...the better decisions we make.” Recent examples include finding unknown hotspots in wildfires, monitoring protest marches like those in Charlottesville, alerting swimmers and surfers of nearby sharks, and damage assessment after Hurricane Harvey. Barriers Previously, the biggest inhibitor was stringent regulations surrounding drones; you had to be a pilot or attending ground flight school to be certified for operation. In 2016, the regulations changed and the cost of technology is rapidly dropping. Today, in Werner’s opinion, the biggest barrier is getting the public safety program organized around governance, transparency, training, documentation, and policies and procedures. Getting your operators certified and understanding national air space rules and regulations are a challenge right at the beginning. “When you become a remote pilot or a drone operator in the public safety world, you are a pilot now in aviation air space.” National Council and the Future Primary goals for the NCPSU include advancing the technology and use of UAS in public safety more quickly, and understanding threats of counter UAS and how to deal with nefarious actors. Werner describes it as the “risk of the careless, the clueless, and the criminal.” This is a critical time for UAS, according to Werner. Awareness is increasing and public safety is starting to see success from other departments, changes in regulations have increased opportunities, technology is adapting to public safety needs, and partnering with unmanned vehicles is bringing more attention to the discussion. “In the next 3-5 years, 90% of agencies will have UAS - if you are not looking into it, you need to be.” Werner can be contacted on the NCPSU Website or by email at charleslwerner@gmail.com to learn more.

Michael (Mick) McKeown is the Executive Director, Campaigns and the Homeland Security Advisory Council at DHS Office of Partnership and Engagement

Episode 3-Mike Tischler, Director USGS Geospatial Office

Interview with Dereck Orr, Division Chief of Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) About PSCR PSCR is part of NIST and provides scientific and engineering expertise to help public safety realize their communications potential, “that so many people assumes exist, but it doesn’t.” PSCR existed in a small capacity before 9/11, but experienced growth due to the focus and effort on interoperability at that time and most recently due to legislation authorizing the First Responder Network Authority or FirstNet. What are the current trends? PSCR is focusing on current voice capabilities of 4G LTE and interoperability with existing communications devices. Building for the future, PSCR is researching enhanced location based services, advanced data analytics to make decisions, and enhanced user interfaces. Traditional commercial devices are not designed with public safety in mind. “As consumers today we take advantage of enhanced analytics to help us make decisions. We can apply those types of algorithms to public safety data to have better response during an operation and make quicker, better decisions and allow them to do more in less time.” How the Research Happens PSCR leverages internal scientists working on measurements of technology and measurements of success. PSCR also uses prize challenges and grants to get industry and academia involved nationally and internationally. Challenges to being innovative include planning lead time for government process for procurement, grants, and hiring. There is, “a tension between innovation and process.” How to Get Involved (Time) Attend the four-day annual stakeholder conference  for industry, academia, public safety, and government, a primary event for public safety communications technology issues. This year’s conference will take place June 5-8 in San Diego, California.Interview with Dereck Orr, Division Chief of Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

James Schwartz talks about the history and current trends of public safety response, new technologies, and the challenges of innovating in government.