As the COVID-19 outbreak continues and the number of new cases is rising exponentially more countries are enforcing stricter measures to keep citizens at home and isolated. In order to enforce these new measures and maintain public order and safety, countries are deploying a large amount of law enforcement, public safety, and first responders’ agents. These organizations are forced to adapt to a new and evolving reality, on the fly, while continuing to serve the population, but also securing the safety of their own personnel.

To do so, homeland security, law enforcement and public safety organizations are utilizing technological solutions that will most likely be used after the pandemic is mitigated as well. Such technologies include the use of drones, thermal scanners, special smart-phone related apps, CCTV and body-worn cameras, big data software and others.

Technological solutions that are being deployed by law enforcement & public safety agencies during these tough times include:

Police Forces:

• Police forces are using drones to enforce lockdown and to, in part, monitor the homeless population. These drones are equipped with cameras and loudspeakers in order to stream live video feed and relay messages to the public
• Wearing body-worn cameras to record all interactions with the public while making sure citizens adhere to new measures and restrictions the governments are enforcing
• Many police forces across the globe are cutting public access to police stations and are handling non-emergency calls over the phone or email instead of dispatching officers to the scene. These could expedite the full roll-out of NG911 programs or at least require PSAPS and police stations to bolster their communications capabilities with the public (i.e. video streaming, text messaging, WhatsApp, FaceTime, etc.)

Border Control – Land, Air and Sea:

• Thermal screening systems of passengers to spot fevers caused by infections such as CoV, swine flu, and influenza (such as H1N1). Thermal screening is performed using mass-screening systems that measure the skin temperature at high-speed using thermal imaging and temperature measurement equipment. If a person is spotted with a fever security personnel can isolate them from the rest just in case they are infected
• Contactless access control and biometrics solutions is gaining quick traction in order to reduce the exposure of border control agencies
• Advanced facial recognition systems that are able to recognize a person even if they are wearing a mask on their face
• Utilizing big data and data analytics to cross check many databases to try and understand if a certain person could be of risk

Cybersecurity:

• Globally, cybersecurity is a major concern as many people are now working remotely and business-related information can be at risk
• There are many attacks against health organizations and hospitals. For instance, The World Health Organization (WHO) is facing a “more than two-fold increase” in cyber-attacks amid its efforts to organize a worldwide response to the coronavirus pandemic
• Phishing scams against a somewhat nervous population is on the rise. It’s reported that the number of phishing attack sites on the internet has risen to 350% of their level in January.

Prisons:

• To deal with the new situation, prisons are changing the way they operate, including the implementation and use of thermal scanning systems, further deployment and analysis of CCTV data, as well as early release of many prisoners with electronic bracelets to follow their movement.

Are you planning ahead so you know how to act once the crisis is mitigated? Make sure you use this time effectively to gather valuable information on your market, your competitors, and your customers. Contact HSRC today to better understand these new measures. Don’t sit back and wait until it is all over or it might be too late.

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