Advances in Public Safety: Insights from NENA 2023

It was wonderful to see colleagues and partners – friends – at the NENA Conference in Dallas this past week. Reflecting, it was incredible to have observed the evolution of Next-Generation over the past decade. While there’s always healthy conversations about the i3 standards, the promise is becoming reality with thousands of Next-Gen network and infrastructure deployments and new tools changing the trajectory of public safety.

Of course, artificial intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s mind and there are now several practical applications around employee wellness and voice recognition. We are at the precipice of seeing advancements of AI and machine learning (ML) in call routing and triage. Voice recognition paves the way for transcription services which are more common to expedite dispatch and audit records. Voice recognition, applied in other languages, bolstered by the leading cloud providers, offers a path to rapid best effort automated language translation via voice and text.

Accompanied by cell phone real-time video and the proliferation of 3D building maps, first responders will benefit from increased situational awareness and broader community engagement. I am proud of our participation in the industry and look forward to continuing to provide tools that helps the real heroes — dispatch center, and first responder — save lives.