Notes From the Field: Navigating the Wild Wild West of Emerging Technologies for Public Safety

• NCJ Number: 254616
• Date Published: April 2020
• Author(s): Red Grasso, who is the director of the FirstTech program and the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for the FirstNet project in North Carolina

Annotation

This NIJ "Notes from the Field" article discusses the ability of public safety organizations to quickly analyze the cost and policy implications of new technology applied to existing programs.

Abstract

The evolving world of technology is moving much faster than public safety ability to analyze the cost and policy implications of new programs. Red Grasso, who is the director of the FirstTech program and the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for the FirstNet project in North Carolina, discusses emerging technology in public safety in this article from NIJs “Notes from the Field” series. He says one of the biggest things agencies can focus on when exploring new opportunities is to define the problem they are trying to solve. Grasso adds that agencies at times end up defining their solution first and it is not always clear how a new initiative is going to benefit them.