Page 12 - Campus Security & Life Safety, March/April 2021

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How university police and public safety teams can win in 2021
Many universities and campuses across the globe are lever- aging the latest generation of licensed-based life safety solutions. They’re delivering a level of protection, rapid response, and operational command and control capabil- ity that police departments could only dream about a few years ago.
Delivering Impressive Results
While it is true that the number of transformative tech implementa- tions at campuses is growing – and delivering impressive results – there are many examples that indicate some new technologies have not quite lived up to their promise. And, there are many reasons why.
Sometimes control interfaces that looked promising in demo ses- sions prove to be too unwieldy in real-world situations. Other times, dispatchers and officers get frustrated by having to switch between multiple systems and interfaces. One of the most common problems is lack of community engagement, which leads to poor uptake and use of apps by students and staff. When this issue isn’t resolved the value of the entire solution, and all its functions, can be undermined.
But with the right approach – starting from initial roll-out, through deployment, to daily use and subsequent monitoring and improvement - these problems are entirely preventable.
An all-in-one public safety software emergency and security man- agement solution that empowers safety and security teams to stream- line and strengthen their capacity to respond to incidents, optimize outcomes and mitigate risks can provide impactful results for campus security teams. But, realizing these results requires testing that solu- tion in daily operations and real life emergencies to customize capa- bilities specific to each campus’ particular needs
Asking the Right Questions
Any police and public safety department looking to transform opera- tions by leveraging a licensed-based service will benefit from asking the right questions in advance.
Let’s assume that you have chosen the service that best fits your campus life safety needs, that it works within your budget to give you all the functions you need; for example: targeted mass communica- tion; lone worker safety monitoring; emergency call; user location pinpointing; three-dimensional positioning in multi-floor buildings; heat mapping; team command and control tools – in other words, everything necessary for full situational awareness across all your buildings and sites.
Let’s also assume that you are satisfied that all these functions will be easy to use, having talked to existing customers about their experi- ences.
Now is the time to focus on implementation, training and support, recognizing that with any new technology there’s a risk that over- stretched officers will feel burdened by having yet another new sys- tem to manage and operate.
12 campuslifesecurity.com | MARCH/APRIL 2021