Community Safety Web Podcast

Technology is transforming policing and security in America. Technology has been a fixture policing for many years – CAD/RMS, crime labs, and radio communication have made important contributions to improving efficiency. Over the past 25 years the use of technology dramatically expanded its reach and at a pace that has been difficult to keep up with. A recent PER/RTI study indicates that 70% of agencies are using in-car cameras, 68% information sharing platforms, over a third use body cameras, cell phone tracking and investigative management systems. 81% of agencies with more than 250 officers are using GIS and 70% use ALPRs. Agencies also reported that they planned to use predictive analytics software, acquire body worn cameras, next generation 911 and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Axon CEO and Founder Rick Smith join us today. A pioneer of technology with the vision of making the bullet obsolete, Rick founded the original company, TASER, in 1993. As the TASER device became ubiquitous in law enforcement, Rick pushed the company beyond weapons technology and towards a broader purpose of matching technology to public safety needs to make the world a safer place. Rick was winner of the Ernst and Young 2002 Entrepreneur of the Year. Rick graduated from Harvard with a B.S. in Neuroscience (Cum Laude) and later earned a master’s degree in international finance from the University of Leuven in Belgium and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Rick is also the author of The End of Killing – a book that outlines his vision for making the bullet obsolete.

Today, we will be talking about Capital Region Real Time Crime Center in Tallahassee, Florida that was launched in February 2023. The first real time crime center was established by the NYPD in 2005. It was originally designed to operate 24/7 to provide information support to patrol officers and detectives in real time – as they were responding to and investigating events on the street. The concept has evolved over the past 18 years to take advantage of a wide range of technology resources. RTCC’s have been adopted by police agencies across the country. Many of them integrate technology such as cameras, gunshot detectors, license plate readers and analytical software to provide operational information support to field operations.

In a unique partnership Florida State University hosts the Capital Region Real Time Crime Center in which the FSU Police Department, Leon County Sheriff’s Office, Tallahassee PD, Capitol Police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are working together to provide information and analytical support as they respond to calls and investigate crime in the field. The RTCC includes an in-house learning lab in which students and researchers from FSU’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice can provide immediate analysis of crime trends.
We are fortunate to have with us today Professor Brian Stults from the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University where he has been a faculty member since 2006. He is also the Director of Research and Evaluation for the RTCC. Brian’s research addresses issues of race, crime, and community in urban areas, with a particular focus on residential segregation, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and spatial and temporal patterns of crime.

Also joining us is Leslie Rabon who is the Executive Director of the Capitol Region RTCC. She began her career with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office in 2004 when she was hired as the agency's first Intelligence and crime analyst. Leslie has been involved in the development of strategies related to intelligence, data-driven approaches, gang enforcement, prevention, and intervention on a local, state, national, and international level. Mrs. Rabon holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in critical incident management from St. Leo’s University.

Today we are excited to bring you the first in a series of episodes focused on specific innovative and evolving security and safety technology solutions that are solving problems and reducing risk. As we begin this series it should be noted that the Institute and hosts of this podcast are not endorsing these technologies or the companies who have created them. Rather we see this is an opportunity to explore technology solutions that can have significant impact on ongoing security and safety challenges.
It is a widely accepted fact, and a topic of a previous episode, that gun violence in the US continues to be a tragic epidemic. Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the U.S. killing more than 38,000 people and causing nearly 85,000 injuries each year. Police and security professionals and community leaders have long searched for ways to prevent, mitigate and reduce these crimes. The technology we are highlighting today aims to do that through identifying weapons before they can be used.

Today we are happy to be joined by Mike Ellenbogen – the founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Evolv Technologies. Started in August, 2013, Evolv is a growth stage company focused on protecting people from gun and bomb violence by fusing innovative new sensors and advanced AI.

Evolv’s stated mission is to “return confidence and peace of mind to people visiting public spaces”. Evolv has created a touchless screening system to identify weapons and health related threats. Through a combination of technologies that include advanced sensors, machine learning, cloud analytics and centralized data storage; the Evolv platform identifies guns, knives and explosives without disrupting people movement and flow.

Unlike traditional metal detectors, x-rays and manual bag checks Evolv’s process allows individuals to walk freely through their portals without stopping. The technology allows for the screening of 4000 people an hour in a single lane.

Today we will be talking about stress and burnout among police chiefs. Serving as a police chief has always been a demanding and stressful job. The past several years has been even more challenging as chiefs have dealt with significant declines in staffing, higher levels of mistrust in the community, spikes in homicides, a pandemic and widespread protests directed at the police themselves. Chiefs from the largest cities in the US turnover in less than five years, and in many cases are just exhausted from the relentless demands of the job.

We are fortunate to have Dr. Kandi Wiens with us today to help us better understand stress and burnout in police executives. She is the co-director of the Penn Master’s in Medical Education program, co-director of the Health Professions Education certificate program, and co-academic director of the Penn Chief Learning Officer executive doctoral program. Dr. Wiens is an executive coach, national speaker, and organizational change consultant. Her coaching practice is deeply grounded in emotional intelligence, burnout, and resiliency research and methods.

Kandi is also a member of the Major Cities Chiefs Association Police Executive Leadership Institute faculty. In addition to her classroom work, she provides individual coaching to each member of the class on a 360-degree assessment. She has also been engaged with research on stress and burnout among police executives which she uses to provide advice and guidance on stress management.

Police and Private Security face enormous challenges in filling vacant positions. This episode outlines the problem and presents approaches that seem to be making getting better results. Special guest Drew Levine, Chief Operating Officer for the East Division of Allied US shares his experience and views on meeting these challenges. Allied is the largest private security company in the world.