In the universe of public safety communications, the stars seem to be aligning for Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1). NG9-1-1 standards have taken shape and, by all reports, some emergency communications centers will be ready to receive live Next Gen 9-1-1 calls in the near future. Exactly when the complete transition to NG9-1-1 will take place is not entirely clear, but one thing is certain: when the mass migration does take place it will bring with it a flood of information—text, still images, streaming video, telematics, medical information, and data from an array of sensors and alerting devices, the likes of which 9-1-1 centers have not seen before.

With so much data converging in the PSAP, 9-1-1 centers may face the proverbial information overload. How will they integrate so many new systems that were never designed to work together? How will they connect the dots among so much new information? Will they be able to easily correlate all the data points to inform their incident response and decision-making? How will they align and automate their operational processes for this more complex environment and abundance of information?

It’s not like these questions haven’t come up before. They have—in a different place and time, in a different type of center: the security operation center (SOC). SOCs, which often serve as the security hub for mass transit, airports, utilities and critical infrastructure facilities, have long struggled with a similar challenge, having sought out ways to fuse their diverse security data silos into a common operational view. And, they’ve found a solution—in situation management technology.

So is it possible that situation management technology will soon find its next application in Next Gen 9-1-1? The answer is a resounding ‘yes.’ Next Generation 9-1-1 is all about IP-enablement; voice is the obvious thing, but NG9-1-1 will also open up the door for 9-1-1 centers to start accepting other data. The challenge 9-1-1 centers will face is how to bring all of this data together into a complete operational view, how to organize it in a way that’s useful, so their personnel can quickly connect the dots, and know exactly what to do. This is precisely the type of problem that situation management technology was designed to solve.

Where Situation Management Intersects Security

Commonly referred to as “PSIM” (Physical Security Information Management), situation management grew out of a rapid rise and adoption of new security technologies, and the convergence of physical security and IT. As organizations invested heavily in technologies like video surveillance, access control and other security, alerting, safety and sensing systems, these technologies all converged in one place—the security operations center. While SOCs had more systems than ever in their arsenal to combat security threats, their ability to connect the dots among these various security silos was limited, until situation management technology stepped in to bridge the gap.

Integrating, Synthesizing and Analyzing Information

So what is situation management technology and how does it work? In its simplest form, situation management technology helps organizations integrate, synthesize and analyze information and alerts from disparate security and safety systems. A robust situation management system is an open architecture, interoperable software platform with generic gateways which enable any number of security, communication, safety, alerting and sensing systems to be integrated into one unified platform. In a security setting, beyond video surveillance and access control, this could include technologies like video walls, perimeter intrusion sensors, location tracking systems (RFID, GPS), panic buttons, environmental sensors, acoustic sensors, license plate readers, communication devices, alarm panels, fire and safety sensors, radars, real-time mobile video, CAD/RMS, mass notification systems, Web/RSS feeds, databases, and other security, operational and communications systems.

A More Precise Situational Awareness

However, situation management doesn’t stop there. Using pre-defined rules, it also analyzes and correlates information and alerts across these many different subsystems in real-time, to give security operations more precise situational awareness—at a much granular level than they could achieve by considering any single piece of information alone. Situation management technology provides clarity on what’s really happening. It actually ‘talks’ to all the security subsystems—video recording systems, fence sensors, radar systems, fire alarms, access control systems, weather systems, sensing devices, etc. It’s like having hands in the pockets of all of these different systems, so you can always see, hear and know what’s going on. Because it can interface with many different subsystems and correlate the data, the situation management solution is able to make sense of a combination of events and provide one look, one view of a situation—a Common Operating Picture.

This is critical because incidents can manifest themselves in different ways. For example, a perimeter intrusion or access control alert might signify one thing; however, couple that with gunshots fired and you have another situation entirely, and one that demands a different type of response.

A Unified Command and Control Interface

An additional benefit is that the situation management system only presents relevant information and presents it in a unified command and control interface. Picture a security dashboard that shows real-time alerts and relevant information from all systems integrated into one intuitive multi-layered display. Contrast this to a center where systems are not connected, and security operators have to monitor a bunch of screens and applications.

Guides Appropriate Responses

Finally, situation management technology guides an appropriate response to a situation based on all of the different indicators of what’s happening. Adaptive, pre-defined response plans can be incorporated into the system, ensuring that standard operating procedures are followed to a tee. Let’s say there’s a perimeter intrusion indicating a security breach at a major facility. A GIS map of the facility pops up on the command and control center screen pinpointing the exact spot of the breach, along with the associated video. At the same time the system triggers an alarm, and using tracking technology, identifies the closest security personnel, sending them a message, accompanied by a video image of the intruder, and instructing them to immediately respond to the location. Situation management doesn’t just bring data together; it helps operations manage situations from beginning to end.

Situation Management: Coming to Next Gen 9-1-1

Understanding what situation management technology is and how it works, one can easily see its applicability for Next Gen 9-1-1. According to NENA’s Next-Generation 9-1-1 Transition Policy Handbook, with Next Generation 9-1-1 “the amount and type of information (voice, text or video) received by PSAPs and shared with emergency response agencies will greatly surpass current E9-1-1 systems.” Additionally, the architecture of NG9-1-1 systems, specifically broadband, will significantly increase the amount of information, equipment and services contained in shared databases and networks, the report continues.

While the NG9-1-1 development underway will provide the foundation to deliver this bountiful information into the 9-1-1 center, it won’t provide the underlying structure to fuse all of these different 9-1-1 support technologies, databases and subsystems together into a comprehensive incident view. The NG9-1-1 emergency services IP network (ESInet) will allow all of this information to come in, but won’t provide a common interface for the information, or a way to make sense of it all. 9-1-1 centers could potentially have information coming in from emergency calls, automated alarm systems, telematics, medical facilities or many sources. But the data will reside in separate applications and will come through in isolation. By its ability to interoperate with many different support technologies, situation management can synthesize all of this data, analyze it, and bring it into one view.

Additionally, as technologies like license plate recognition, gunshot detection and video become more broadly adopted in public safety, situation management can help agencies leverage all of these tools to their fullest for real-time incident management. Once you have an IP network, there’s an opportunity for all sorts of services and data to ride on that network. There are many instances where police departments are deploying citywide video surveillance systems or even working with commercial businesses to link to their cameras. Through situation management, they’ll be able to fuse all of these disparate technologies into one Common Operating Picture, along with the communication systems necessary to push this real-time information out to first responders.

To understand what this could mean in real terms consider the following scenario. A CCTV camera equipped with license plate recognition gets a hit on a stolen vehicle. In the city command and control center, an alert immediately pops up on an operator’s workstation, along with CCTV video showing the stolen car. Based on the direction the vehicle was heading, the system uses a geo-referenced based map to pull up the next five CCTV cameras along the vehicle’s projected route. While the cameras are all from different systems, they are presented in a unified view. As the control center operator keeps a visual on the vehicle as it moves through the city, the stolen vehicle license plate hit triggers a CAD ticket to automatically open in a the 9-1-1 center five miles away, while simultaneously providing the same visual (incident view) to the 9-1-1 center dispatcher. As the incident is dispatched, the same real-time video of the stolen vehicle is pushed out to the responding unit’s mobile terminal along with vehicle’s last known location.

Through situation management, real-time data from other private sector entities could also be used to improve incident handling. There are support technologies, databases and resources outside of the realm of the traditional emergency communications center—crime databases, poison control databases, hazardous material information, chemical sensors, video feeds into utilities, traffic systems, weather systems, hospital and emergency room occupancy data—that could all be material to incident handing. Maybe you have five people seriously injured in an accident, but the local ER is filled to capacity. A system powered by situation management could use real-time occupancy data to automatically instruct a dispatcher to send the accident victims to another ER where they’ll get treatment faster.

Empowering the Next Generation of 9-1-1 Telecommunications

Another consideration with Next Gen 9-1-1 is the sheer volume and magnitude of information that 9-1-1 personnel could come face to face with. In fact, the titles ‘telecommunicator,’ ‘call taker,’ and ‘dispatcher’ could very well become misnomers as 9-1-1 centers become the focal point for receiving and processing all types of multimedia beyond just voice.

Here, situation management can help too—by correlating and analyzing these myriad sources of data, extracting what’s relevant and actionable, and then presenting that information in a comprehensive incident view—so 9-1-1 personnel can interact with one intelligent workstation, instead of many as they so often do today. Instead of relying solely on training and memory to guide incident handling, 9-1-1 centers will be able to use situation management technology to automate responses and actions.

Let’s say a telematics alert comes in to report a vehicle accident at a particular location. That alert could automatically be sent to the local emergency service without an operator actually being involved at all, simply by linking those two systems together. What that does is create a whole new level of efficient information flow.

Alternatively, if there was a chemical spill, a telecommunicator could click on a special desktop icon to instantly open a CAD incident to dispatch a hazmat team. Further, the system could prompt the telecommunicator to ask questions or take other actions. It could automatically fetch information such as floor plans or maps, or send notifications to other emergency departments to block off a certain area or shut down the highway. Protocols for virtually any type of medical emergency could be pre-programmed into the system to walk telecommunicators through questions to ask or procedures to follow.

Mass notification, a staple technology in the security world, could also be integrated and automated as part of a public safety protocol. For example, say a gunshot detection sensor picked up a gunshot fired, and the system correlated that information with a geo-referenced map and determined that the shot was fired in the area of a school. The situation management system’s automated protocols could instruct the system to automatically pull up and display video from the three closest CCTV cameras, and without any human intervention, simultaneously send out a mass notification alert to school officials and everyone in proximity to the school, averting potential catastrophe. At the end of the day, it’s not how much data you have, it’s what you do with it.

Diamond Chaflawee is sector marketing director for public safety for NICE Systems (Rutherford, N.J.) Security Americas Division. He has over a decade of experience working for organizations in the public safety and government sectors, including NICE Systems and Genesis System House, an Israeli software subcontractor and integrator of large-scale government projects. Chaflawee holds a patent for technology he developed while at NICE. The technology provides an automated way for 9-1-1 centers to manage and reproduce multimedia information. He served in the Israeli military intelligence corps and earned a Bachelor’s degree from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and an MBA degree with honors from Tel-Aviv University, Israel. Contact him at diamond.chaflawee@nice.com.