Local government agencies are facing increased pressure to improve agency agility and performance, while creating efficiencies and reducing costs in order to better serve the public, and cloud solutions could be just the answer. Today marks the kick-off of our thought leadership blog series designed to provide local government leaders around the world with specifics on how cloud solutions can enable citizen services and drive transformation for a more connected, more efficient government.
Throughout the series, our industry experts will examine a variety of topics from the value proposition of cloud to a review of how specific agencies are effectively using cloud to meet department imperatives. Below is an example showing how the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain is using cloud to increase its ability to quickly provision new projects, realize operating and capital cost savings, and offer new services to its widely dispersed citizens and workforce.
This weekend, as the United States celebrates Veterans Day, Cisco’s Global Government team would like to thank all those who have and continue to serve.
The world is continuously changing, bringing new and complex challenges and now, more than ever, communities and citizens need and expect a connected government, one that will enable local government to be there to help, to serve and to protect, no matter what the circumstance.
A connected government is about creating new possibilities for citizens and employees. It’s about breaking down silos between agencies and departments, providing cost-effective solutions, increasing operational efficiencies, and delivering better, faster, real-time services. It’s about understanding how the world is changing, and adapting to that change with scalable, long term, solutions made possible through technology.
As governments of today face these variety of challenges, new and innovative approaches are being implemented and some local governments are leading the way by deploying cloud and mobility solutions to overcome these challenges in a collaborative and timely manner.
Our latest public sector video highlights some examples of how these challenges are being addressed globally.
For the 14th year, IACP and Cisco are proud to celebrate and pay tribute to departments worldwide practicing the community policing philosophy. These departments bring change, address crime and terrorism, and make their communities safe places to live, work, and play.
Please help us spread the word and encourage others to share their success. The application deadline is midnight EST on June 3, 2012.
Community policing organizations from around the world can apply now for the opportunity to be recognized for the ways it has made public safety a priority through the use of collaboration, crime prevention, and partnership formation. Winners will be honored at the 2012 IACP Annual Conference in San Diego, CA.
Protection is a public service and one that can only effectively be carried out with the support and consent — and participation — of the people. We’ve read stories about how Twitter played a key role in responding to wildfires or iPhone applications show a community map of registered sex offenders and crime areas.
But in public safety, especially, there is a unique source of participants – one that is especially important in these days of tighter state/local budgets. In California, for example, there are nearly 190,000 sworn active public safety officers (police and fire). However, there are nearly a million retired and former officers. This represents, on average, nearly 15 million years of skills and experience walking the streets. This population of people never lost their purpose or their desire to contribute — they just ran out of time!
How can we harness this trusted population? A local government could create an “opt-in” network of these experienced citizens. Typically, public safety training records are centralized through a central state body. A database comparison of the records can be matched against the ‘opt-in’ application.
Once accepted, the officer will receive instantaneous alerts on his cell phone, based on its GPS location, about reported problems. When a problem is reported, the public safety dispatcher would have the ability to examine a geo-spatial screen and discover how many people are in a particular area and who best to solicit or notify.
Governments across the country should enable this skilled population to support public safety problem-solving, in order to identify, recognize, and address problems much faster.
Our workshop was also well attended with many best practices shared by our panel
Policing in the New Normal Workshop: New Economics, New Opportunities, New Strategies: Balancing Services and Technology to Address Community, Crime, and Terrorism.
If you missed this session, you can still watch the recording on webex.
See below for more information on community policing.
Each year since 1998 the International Association of Chiefs of Police Community Policing Committee has recognized the best community policing practices of agencies around the world. Entries are categorized by population, featuring innovative ideas utilizing the power of community policing, through collaboration and partnerships, to make local, national and global communities safer from crime and terrorism.
Winners:
Population: Under 20,000: Purcellville Police Department, Virginia: Engagement of Our Community
Population: 50,001 to 100,000: New Rochelle Police Department, New York: Fixing Broken Windows: A Collaborative Approach to Housing Remediation httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf2SQfHlX08
Population: 100,001 to 250,000: Dayton Police Department, Ohio: Urban High School Disorder Reduction Project
