New York City’s Real Time Crime Center provides real-time access to 120 million criminal complaints, warrants and calls to emergency services dating back 10 years, five million state criminal and parole records and 35 billion property and other public records.
The first phase of the project and the core of the command center is a massive crime data warehouse, which IBM Global Services built using WebSphere utilizing IBM’s DB2 Universal database and Cognos Series 7 Powerplay technology to house billions of public records and police reports, according to an NYPD.
The department used systems integrator Dimension Data Holdings for help evaluating, building, and implementing software that could be used to slice and dice this data in a way that would be most useful to detectives walking the beat.
The high-tech network would overcome terrorism, chemical warfare and other catastrophes.
It started a 12-week, $2.7 million pilot program where Motorola Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp. will compete with wireless emergency communications networks.
The winner will be awarded a $500 million, five-year contract to build and maintain that new network. If neither Motorola nor Northrop are chosen, the city will seek new bids.
The goal of the project is to provide emergency workers with immediate access to large files, including maps, building layouts, federal and state anti-crime and counter-terrorism databases, said Lam.
The city wants a network that will transmit police data on fingerprints and mug shots and increase surveillance and traffic management for police. It also wants high-speed links for fire department and other emergency workers, including electronic boards and tracking systems to know workers are located in real time. The system must also monitor radiological and biological threats with full video.
Motorola intends to use its MOTOMESH system, which can connect different agencies, and other new high-speed technology, said Jeff Parsons, Motorola solution sales executive in New York.
Northrop Grumman is building interoperable wireless geospatial solutions for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Their MobileShield wireless interconnects analog radios and digital Project 25 radios with other satellite and cellular backbones.
Northrop Grumman, incidently, is constructing a 140,000 square feet building at a new business park near the Colorado Springs Airport. The three-story facility will be near Homeland Security’s Norad Headquarters (above).
Meanwhile, Eliot Spitzer, New York’s Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor, has called for affordable broadband Internet (StatenIsland Live) for even the smallest towns and poorest neighborhoods in NY statewide. He said the high-speed Internet services will boost business, education and medical care even in the most rural areas of the state.
The National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza might be played out at the Tom Harkin Global Communications Center (below), at the CDC in Altanta, which provides continuous delivery of information to the public in case of emergency. Some 200 separate stations face a gigantic video screen with 16 separate feeds, from broadcasters (CNN, Fox) to the national aircraft grid to worldwide incidence levels of Avian Flu. Nothing for the blogesphere, though. Same O, same O.
The federal government is unlikely to be much help when the Avian Flu (H5N1) arrives. But hundreds of Web 2.0 applications and Google Map Mashups, created by individuals and small groups, will save lives. You can track the flyways of wild birds with Google Earth while Incidentlog can map police, fire and 911 alerts across the country. FEMA may have less credibility than WikiPedia.
That’s just the way it is.
Last year, the federal government stopped funding the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, a spin off from the ill fated Total Information Awareness Project. It was launched in January 2002 with $8 million from the Homeland Security Department and $4 million from the Justice Department. The project floundered when it was discovered that personal information was being traded with banks.
Matrix also had a lot of competition from federal and regional data-sharing initiatives, including the federally funded Regional Information Sharing System, the Homeland Security Information Network, the Joint Regional Information Exchange System, and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces.
In other news, Philadelphia’s city council unanimously approved the city-wide Wi-Fi plan by Earthlink. Elected officials are now debating the proposal as the city negotiates a contract. Once Philadelphia’s 135 square mile wireless plan is approved by the mayor, EarthLink will start building the network in June over a 15-square-mile test area. The test should take three to four months, said Clifton Roscoe, director of major projects for EarthLink.
If the $18 million system is fully deployed by the third quarter of 2007, as planned, Philadelphia would be the first large city to have its own wireless Internet network.
Now that’s a safety net.
Opening up the 700MHz band might enable public/private safety networks — for $5 million. Vested intererests, both public and private, will resist. No news there. Maybe the bird flu, if it comes, will also bring the realization to the public that a safety net is not much good unless it serves all the people.
New Orleans is exhibit “A”.
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Left by dailywireless.org » State-wide Wireless Broadband Access on January 6th, 2007