Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com JUNE/JULY 2021 45 Interoperability in safe, smart city designs THE LAST WORD BY KEITH D'SA U rban or rural, no matter the landscape, it's expected that Canadians in all parts of the country should feel safe in their communities. People make up communities, and with increased urbanization and overcrowd- ing, we see more movement, more action, and more life. While most cities have mea- sures to protect their residents from vio- lence, crime, pollution, and natural disas- ters, some of the existing security-focused solutions at play are not as effective. To maintain a quality of living and well-being, Canadian cities ought to evolve with the changing needs associated with public safety, urban mobility, and environmental monitoring. The panacea to this problem is a united front consisting of city authori- ties, government, law enforcement, and other professionals all working together for the good of all citizens. That's not the only form of commitment required to safe- guard people, we also need to supplement or update our current surveillance systems with additional IoT sensors, cameras, and analytics to help communities greatly im- prove public safety in the following areas. Cameras and IoT solutions can improve public safety through: 1. Situational awareness: Improve awareness of the overall situation for city planners, maintenance, and police services to be able to react in a more effective manner and deploy the right resources 2. Police investigations: Speed up the identification of suspects and collec- tion of evidence 3. Public order: Control crowds in pub- lic spaces and at major events 4. Emergency management: Rapid and targeted intervention in case of man- made or natural disasters 5. Risk and compliance: Provide foren- sic evidence for citizen claims against public security officers 6. Crime prediction: Predict trends in particular types of crime in the city ar- eas and smaller communities As our communities continue to see more infrastructure growth, the populations who live in them also flourish - this is SURVEILLANCE SOLUTIONS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY when potential threats to public safety can grow. We start experiencing challenges both to the infrastructure and overall se- curity of a city and outlying community. Managing large crowds Unruly crowds are becoming more of an occurrence, and both cities and provinces are taking steps to address these occur- rences. For instance, the province of Brit- ish Columbia is looking to implement crowd control measures in some of the provincial parks. Overseeing and guiding mass crowds is key to overall public safety. The best way to manage crowds is to understand crowd dynamics and behav- iour in order to reduce the probability of potentially risky situations. Multi-func- tional surveillance solutions for crowd management can detect crowds, count people, monitor social distancing, and gather insights to improve safety and flow. For example, an IP camera and au- dio solutions can offer high-quality video as well as audio guidance and announce- ments. Analytics applications like people counting and crowd detection improve

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