 Hello and welcome to today's session of the 2021 AWS Global Public Sector Partner Awards for today's award for the award of Best Partner Transformation, Best Global Expansion. I'm your host, Natalie Erlich, and now I'm very pleased to introduce you to our next guests. They are James Slesser, Global Managing Director, Public Safety at Accenture, and Lauren Atherly, Director of Performance Analytics and Research at the Seattle Police Department. Ladies and gentlemen, it's wonderful to have you on the program. Thanks for having us. Terrific. Well, we're going to talk a lot about data and a lot about public safety and how, you know, data analytics is making a big impact in the public safety world. So do tell us. I'd like to start with you, James. Tell us how Accenture's intelligent public safety platform turns data into a strategic asset. Thanks, Natalie. The intelligent public safety platform is all about combining different data sets together and taking a platform approach to using data within public safety. What it does is it allows us to bring a whole host of different types of data together in one place, put that through a series of different analytical transactions, and then visualize that information back to whoever within the public safety environment needs it. And really it does four key things. One is it helps with situational awareness, helps the officer understand the situation that they're in and gives them insight to help support and guide them. Secondly, it helps enhance investigations. So how do you join those dots? How do you help navigate and speed up complex investigations by better understanding a range of data sets? And thirdly, it really helps with force management and understanding the behavior and the activities within the force, and how best to use those critical assets of police officers and police staff themselves. And then finally, what it does is it really looks at digital evidence management. How do you actually manage data effectively as an asset within the force? So those are the four key things. And certainly with our work at Seattle, we've really focused on that force management area. Yeah, thanks for mentioning that. Now let's shift to Lauren. Tell us how has IPSP really helped your staff make some key contributions towards public safety in the city of Seattle? Yeah, thanks. So I think our business intelligence journey started maybe a little in advance of the IPSP with our partnership with Accenture on the data analytics platform. And we've been taking that same IPSP approach since 2015 as part of our efforts to comply with a federal consent decree. So I think what we probably don't understand necessarily is that most police departments build sort of purpose-built source systems to onboard data and make good use of them. But that doesn't necessarily mean that that data is readily available. So we've been able to demonstrate compliance with the elements of a settlement agreement for our consent decree. But we've also been able to do a whole host of research projects designed to better understand how police operate in the criminological environment, how they perform and really make the best use of those assets as we have them deployed around the city doing law enforcement work. Terrific. Now, James, let's shift to you, one of the kind of key dilemmas here in the sector is how can you utilize these new technologies in policing and law enforcement while still building trust with the public? Absolutely. I mean, I do think that it is critical that public safety agencies are able to use the benefits of new technology. Criminals are using technology in all sorts of different ways. And it's important that policing and public safety organizations are able to exploit the advantages that we now see through technology and the ability to understand and analyze data. But equally, it's critical that these are implemented in ways that engage and involve the public, that the way in which the analytics and analysis is conducted is open and transparent to people understand how the data is being used and also that officers themselves are part of the process when these tools are built and developed. So they gain a thorough understanding of how to use them and how to implement them. So being open and transparent in the way that these platforms are built is actually critical. Yeah, that's an excellent point because clearly bad actors are already using data. So we might as well use it to help the good actors out there and help the public. So in your opinion, Lauren, what is the next phase of this kind of model? What are you hoping to do next with this kind of technology? So as we use this technology, as we understand more about it, we're really building data curiosity within the management group at SPD. So really sort of, I would say the first phase of a business intelligence platform in policing is about orienting people to the problem. How many of these things happen at what time and where do they happen around the city and then beginning to build better questions from the people who are actually doing the business of delivering police service in the city. And the future of that, I think, is taking that critical feedback and understanding how to respond with really more intelligent services, predictive services that help to kind of cut through that just general descriptive noise and provide insights to the operation in a city that has about 900,000 dispatches in a year. It's difficult to pinpoint which dispatches are of interest to police managers, which crimes, which calls may be of interest to the city at large as they manage public safety and risk management. And so our future development agenda, our roadmap, if you will, for the next several years is really focused on developing intelligent processes that make use of all of that data, boil it down to what's critically important and help direct people who are most familiar with the operation to those those events, those critical pieces of insight that might be helpful in allowing them to make better management decisions. Yeah. And what are some of the key areas that you find this platform can be effective in terms of, you know, public safety, certain criminal activities, James? I think the IPSP has a wide range of applications. So certainly looking at how we can bring a whole range of data together that previously has maybe been locked away in individual silos or separate systems. So public safety agencies are really able to understand what they know and the information that they have and make it much easier to access and understand that information. I also think it's allowing us to perform levels of analytics and therefore insight on those data sets, which previously public safety agencies have struggled to do. And in the case of Seattle, focusing on the force management aspect, I think it's helped them understand the activities and behavior of their workforce in context and in relation to other events and other activities to a much greater depth than they've been able to do previously. Terrific. Well, Lauren, obviously, you know, this was a really tough year with COVID. What impact did the pandemic have on your operations and some of your more modern policing efforts? Oh, I mean, obviously it radically changed the way that we deploy forces in the organization, beginning early in March. You know, like most of the world, we all moved home, tried to keep up the pace of development and continue to manage the operation. But as that was happening, you know, people are still living their lives out out in the world and out in the city. So we pretty quickly found ourselves trying to adapt to that new use of public spaces, trying to identify problems in an environment that really doesn't look anything like the previous couple of years that we were working in and, you know, data and and really sort of the availability of technology that helps to identify what's new and what's interesting and rapidly develop those insights and get them available for police managers was critical and helping us identify things like trends in potential exposure events. So being able to identify, you know, just exactly how many calls involve the use of personal protective equipment, use that to forecast potential exposure for our workforce, be able to track exposure reports in the field to be able to determine whether there are staffing concerns that need to be considered and all of that, you know, we're able to pretty rapidly prototype and deploy dashboards and tools that help folks and especially the command staff have kind of a global sense for how the operation is functioning as the environment is literally shifting underneath them as, you know, the use of public spaces and is changing and as dispatch procedures are changing as public policy is changing related to, you know, things like jail booking availability and public health and safety policies. The department was able to stay on top of those key metrics and really make sort of the best minute by minute decisions based in the data. And that's really not something that's been available, you know, without sort of the ready availability of data at your fingertips and the ability to rapidly prototype things that direct people to what's important. Yeah, thank you for that. Now, James, I'd love to hear your comments on that. I mean, has the pandemic altered or, you know, given you any kind of fresh perspective on, you know, modern policing efforts using these kinds of platforms? Well, I think the pandemic has shown the importance of using data in new and different ways. I mean, one thing the pandemic certainly did was see a shift in crime types, you know, traditional street based volume crime declined where we saw increases in cyber and online crime. And therefore, the flexibility that police services have had to have in order to shift how they combat changing crime types has meant that they've had to be able to use data, as I say, new and different ways and think about how can they be more disruptive in their tactics? How can they get new types of insight and really platforms like the Intelligent Public Safety Platform help them become much more flexible and much more nimble? And that's certainly something that's been required as a result of the pandemic. Yeah, that's really great to hear. You know, Lauren, going to you, I'd love to hear how specifically IPSB was able to help you, you know, the Seattle Police Department, as well as statewide inquiries and investigations. What kind of enhancements were you able to receive from that? Well, you know, I mean, in terms of investigations, the way that Seattle deploys the Intelligent Public Safety Platform, our focus is really primarily on deployment of resources, that force management, the accountability piece of things. And so from our perspective, the ability to onboard new data sources quickly and make use of that information in kind of a rapid sort of responsive function was really critical for us. But, you know, certainly, and I think as as most communities are exploring new ways of approaching community safety, the Intelligent Public Safety Platform for us was really effective in being able to answer those those questions that are coming up as people are reforming the way that policing is deployed in their communities. We're able to reach out and see just exactly how many hours are spent on one particular function over another, something that perhaps could be available for a co-responder model or take a look at, you know, this sort of natural experiment that we have out in our criminological environment as people are using spaces differently. And as we are approaching enforcement policy differently, being able to take a look at what are the effects of, you know, perhaps not arresting people for certain types of crime? Do we see some displacement of those effects across different crime types? Do we see an increase in harm in other areas of the operation? Have we seen, you know, increases in one particular crime type while another one declines? How is the environment responding to these rapid changes and what really is a natural experiment occurring out in the world? Yeah, I mean, it's really incredible. I'm having all that data at our fingertips and really being able to utilize it to have a fuller perspective of what's really happening. Right? What do you think, James? Yeah, I mean, I think being able to really utilize different data sets is something that police forces are seeing to become more and more important. They're recognizing that becoming increasingly data-led can really help improve their performance. And the challenge to date has really been how do we bring those data sets together, but not then require police officers to wade through reams and reams of data. I mean, the volumes of data now that organizations are having to manage is huge. And so really the power of the IPSP is being able to filter through all of that data and really deliver actionable insight. So something that the police officer can go and do something with and really make a difference around. And that's something that's absolutely critical. And modern-day policing is increasingly having this data-driven and evidence-based approach to help make it far more effective and really focused on the needs of its citizens. Yeah, and as you mentioned, I mean, the algorithms are really driving this, you know, giving us these actionable insights. But how can we ensure that they're acting fairly to all the stakeholders? James, I'd like you to answer this, please. Absolutely. I mean, trust and confidence within policing is absolutely paramount. And whilst the use of these sorts of tools I think is critical to helping keep communities and the public safe, it's very important that these tools are deployed in an open, transparent way. And part of that is understanding the algorithms, making sure that algorithmic fairness is built in so that these are tested and any sort of bias or unintended consequences are understood and known and factored in to the way in which the tools are both built and used. And then on top of that, I think it's open, it's important that these are open and transparent, that it's clear how and why departments are using these technologies. And it's also critical that the officers using them are trained and understood how to use them and how to use the insights that they're starting to deliver. Yeah, and thanks for mentioning that, Lauren. What kind of training are you providing your staff at the Seattle Police Department? And, you know, how do you see this evolving in the next few years? With regard to algorithmic fairness, what kind of training along those lines? Or how do you or training with the IPSP and all these other kinds of technologies that you're embracing now to help with your public safety initiatives? Well, you know, I think one of the one of the real benefits to becoming an evidence based organization, a truly evidence led organization is that you don't have to train folks to use data. What you have to do is leverage data to make it work and be really infused with their everyday operations. So we, you know, we have police officers and we have managers and we have commanders and they've got a very complex set of tasks that they've been trained to work with. It's really sort of our mission to be trained in how to identify, you know, the correct UX UI design, how to make sure that the insights that are being directed to those folks are really tailored to the business they're operating. And so to that extent, the analytical staff that we have is really focused on sort of continuous improvement and constant learning about how we can be mindful of things like bias in the algorithms and the various systems that we're deploying and also be up to date on the latest and how police operations really are sort of deployed around the city and ways that we can infuse those various management functions or those police service functions with data and analytics that are just naturally working with people's business sense and their, you know, really sort of primary function, which is the delivery of police service. Terrific. Well, James, lastly with you, just real quick, you know, what are your thoughts in terms of being able to extend the power of IPSP beyond Seattle in the broader United States? Well, I mean, I think IPSP has huge applicability to any public safety agency in the US and beyond. And we're already seeing other agencies around the world interested in using it and deploying it, where they basically want to get and be able to utilize a wider range of data where they want to be able to drive greater insight into that that data set where they want to be confident in deploying open and fair algorithms to really make a difference. And if we do take the specific example of the US and the work that we've done with Seattle, then I think tools like the Intelligent Public Safety Platform have a huge part to play in the wider reimagining of policing within the US in understanding officer and departmental behavior and actually opening up and sharing information with citizens that increase levels of trust and transparency between public safety agencies and the communities and citizens that they serve. And, you know, on that note, do you think that IPSP is useful in terms of collaboration efforts, you know, with other police departments, perhaps in other states, you know, or just as a global national effort, Lauren, do you see that kind of potential in the future? Yeah, and actually, we do that now. So one of the really sort of powerful things about having all this data at your fingertips, and I would say having this kind of awesome responsibility of being the steward of this type of asset for the community and really sort of for the industry at large, is that we're able to take the data and rapidly develop new research projects with researchers around the world. So the Seattle Police Department maintains a network of about, I think we're up to about 55 current researchers and institutions. I think we've got about 33, 32 institutions around the world. People really working on real time problems related to the things that matter to our community right now and having this data available at our fingertips allows us to rapidly develop data sources. We can actually get on a call with one of our researchers and build out a table for them to use or start exploring the data. In an ad hoc querying layer and making visualizations and helping the researchers form better questions so that when we develop their data and we deploy it to them, they can pretty quickly get in there. It's in the format that they're looking for. They understand it. They can run some tests and determine whether the data that we've provided for them actually meets their needs. And if it doesn't, we can develop them in a new set pretty quickly. I think that also, that research function, that discovery function that we're enabled through the use of these data is actually helping to bring together the community of law enforcement around this this idea of a collaborative understanding of how policing works around the city, you know, or sorry, around the the world. So of 18,000 or so law enforcement agencies in the United States, there is broad variability in people's competency and their use of data. But we're finding that agencies that have access to these types of tools or who are starting to develop access to these tools and the competencies to use them are coming together and beginning to talk about how we can understand sort of cross cultural and cross regional correlations and patterns that we see across our multiple operations. And although, you know, those are varied and range around the country or even around the world, I think that that collaboration on understanding how policing works, what's normal, what's abnormal and what we can do about it is really going to be powerful in the future. Yeah, well, this is really exciting. Yeah, what are your thoughts? I was just going to build on the point that Lauren was making there, because I think I think that is a really important one. You know, when when you look around the world, the challenges that different public safety and policing agencies face are actually dramatically similar. And the ability for policing organizations to come together and think about how they use data, think about how they use data in a fair and transparent way is something we're really starting to see. And that ability to share insight, to experiment and really make sure that you're bringing lots of different insight together to further the way in which police forces all over the world can actually help keep their citizens safe and combat what is an increasingly rapidly and evolving threat landscape is something that we see tools like the Intelligent Public Safety Platform really helping to do. And if one police force starts to use it in a certain way in one jurisdiction and has success there, there's definitely the ability to share that insight with others and get this global pool of understanding and knowledge, all furthering the level of safety and security that can be delivered to communities in the public. Terrific. Well, thank you both so much for your insights. It's been really fantastic to hear how these new technologies are really coming to the aid of public safety officials and helping secure the public. That was Lauren Atherly, Director of Performance, Analytics and Research at the Seattle Police Department and James Slesser, Global Managing Director at Public Safety at Accenture. And I'm Natalie Ehrlich, your host for theCUBE. And that was our session for the AWS Global Public Partner Awards. Thank you very much for watching.