Recently courts, like businesses and institutions worldwide, have been affected and required to modify processes. The unprecedented actions of locking down the globe presents many challenges, and unattended consequences, with the potential to impact the delivery of justice for all. While the court was racing to stand-up remote capabilities subsequent pressures including climate change, political unrest, and civil disturbances added to the complexity and urgency.

Courts have a great responsibility to our community given the continuity of justice is what keeps order and fairness. Those two elements become even more important in times of crisis. Many court leaders and administrators were fast to respond to the crisis. The quick adoption of remote working and virtual hearings capabilities helped keep the court open, eliminating backlogs. Meanwhile, court clerks were instrumental in helping the technology industry understand the unique requirements for a court

Microsoft worked with subject matter experts and the court customers to help develop a more tailored solution to meet the needs of a court. Virtual Hearings was the answer to the ask of customers to help replicate the functionality of the court process from a remote posture.

“… in our quest for digital transformation, with the aim of realizing expedited, efficient, and secure trials that are more user-friendly for court users especially during this time of public health emergency,” said the Honorable Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta.

After several months of remote working, we have seen the technology evolve and adoption of the technology accelerate. The courts are learning that the ability to work remotely is not only advantageous for social distancing but an efficient and cost-saving measure that could enhance the services of a court. Technology savvy courts are realizing that they may not need the huge and costly infrastructures of a courthouse, that citizens can get levels of “self-help” from a digitally connected court, paper costs are reduced or eliminated with safer storage, auto redaction, and digital filing. Attorneys can quickly communicate and submit documents—regardless of time or location—to keep the pace of justice moving even when social distancing is no longer required.

Core to Microsoft’s culture, we have applied customer feedback to help evolve our technology to support the unique needs of courts. As our world evolves and changes, the needs of the court will as well. Microsoft, who embraces the mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet is helping courts deliver on their promise of justice for all.

Watch a virtual hearing in action and learn more about Microsoft in Public Safety and Justice.

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When it comes to rates of incarceration in the United States, the statistics are grim. According to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), every year $81 billion is spent on keeping people in correctional facilities across the country. Out of the staggering number of people behind bars, almost 80 percent will return to a correctional institution within three years of being released. This is not just an isolated problem: according to the UK House of Commons Library, in 2017 and 2018 in England and Wales, it costs on average £37,543 ($45,986 USD) a year to keep just one person in a correctional facility, and the situation is alarming and costly. But what if cloud-connected systems and artificial intelligence (AI) could offer solutions, finding ways to harness the wealth of data inherent in public safety institutions, and use it to the advantage of administrators and inmates alike?

AI is at the forefront of an effort to increase institutional safety at correctional institutions and help reduce re-entry. While allocating housing to inmates may be mundane, it can have huge implications for inmate and staff safety. Having the ability to leverage data to understand risk during intake, and ultimately to inform housing decisions, can ensure safety and successful re-entry. Considering all of the available information about a new or returning inmate, a slew of data points could be used to look for insights and patterns of success. This data could alert staff to potentially volatile housing matches or even recommend matches that are likely to be successful. In the vast majority of correctional facilities, housing decisions are made on the fly, based on just a few data points. Using AI to create a more holistic view of inmates can go a long way to increasing their safety and lessening the likelihood of recidivism.

In addition, intelligent solutions could help make sure staff are forewarned about the number of people arriving on any given day so that more appropriate staffing choices can be made. Knowing exactly how many staff members to have on duty, and when, has the potential to save correctional institutions a great deal of resources. When it comes to making decisions about where to house inmates or how many staff to schedule, more information can lead to more successful decision making. It’s a simple equation that has AI and intelligent cloud technology at its heart.

Replacing the on-premises, paper-laden processes with cloud computing can truly transform correctional facilities. Traditional corrections management handles a huge amount of data that is too often siloed. Storing and surfacing data in the cloud makes the difficult task of turning paper-based data into valuable insights easier. It’s not just about institutions streamlining inmate names and arrivals; data-driven insights can ultimately save money, keep inmates safer, and foster better outcomes for correctional facilities.

Technology can also make life better for inmates during and after their time behind bars. When it comes to education and skill-building for inmates, cloud-computing can have a positive impact on what is, for most, a difficult experience. The Microsoft cloud platform is already being put to innovative use by correctional institutions to make inmate education more effective and modern. For example, in South Australia, the Department for Correctional Services uses Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 to help inmates gain relevant skills and education to better prepare them for life after release. In this case, transforming inmate education required stringent security controls and an evergreen platform that would reflect the technology standard in today’s job market. It’s an inspiring example of how using technology creates a more effective and positive experience for inmates.

Correctional organizations carry with them a vast amount of institutional knowledge. When combined with highly secure, data-driven insights gained through intelligent solutions, it can help these institutions harness deeper insights and ultimately improve public safety. Plus, all the potential efficiencies and cost-savings are rooted in Microsoft security features. With an evergreen platform and the backing of billions of dollars of security investment, Microsoft cloud-based solutions are some of the most trusted out there.

The future of public safety institutions is optimistic, thanks to highly efficient and people-focused technology. Combining data-driven insights with a human-centric approach, Microsoft technology can help corrections facilities bring a new perspective to what they do, all in an effort to deliver better outcomes. When AI and cloud-friendly transformation enters the public safety and justice space, it’s not just the business side that benefits—people and lives could be changed for the better.

To learn more about intelligent solutions designed with public safety in mind, listen to the GovPod podcast online, or via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify.

The post How AI can empower correctional facilities and their clients appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

While most law enforcement agencies operate in a fog of big data, it doesn’t have to be this way. There are approaches to improving data integration and analytics that substantially enhance policing. Broadly these initiatives fall into three categories:

Knowing before:

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. But a retrospective view only gets you so far in terms of applicable intelligence. Machine learning can be your force multiplier—because it offers the possibility of actual foresight in real-time situations. Using predictive, cloud-based analytics, it is possible to identify subtle patterns in data streams that lead to advanced awareness of crimes about to be committed or emergencies about to occur. In this way, the sort of intuition that a seasoned police officer has can be extended to provide an always-on view. For example, individual activities that seem innocuous might collectively trigger suspicion or flag an increased risk when aggregated and analyzed by machine learning algorithms—such as shifts in travel or purchase patterns, or social media activity.

Knowing in the moment:

No doubt every first responder wishes they had an omniscient 360-degree view of the scene they are encountering. Well, today sensors coupled with real-time data ingestion and analysis (performed in a secure cloud environment) can greatly enhance this situational intelligence, coupled with geo-spatial information allows first responders to correlate and execute an appropriate response. The relevant technologies include:

• Connected devices: Synchronized feeds from CAD; RMS; body cameras and in-vehicle camera systems; CCTV; chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear sensors (CBRN); (ALPR); acoustic listening devices; and open-source intelligence (OSINT) all help to capture a detailed picture of the event.
• Geo-spatial awareness: Event information, as well as objects of potential interest nearby, is mapped, providing an enhanced view of the environment. For example, additional sensors are monitored and nearby schools and businesses identified, along with egress routes, traffic patterns, and hospitals.
• Other relevant information and histories: By using address-specific identity and licensing data, past calls for service, and other active calls in the area, pertinent information about the residence (such as any weapons or chemicals on the premises) can be instantly surfaced. In the event of fire, chemical, or environmental disasters weather information can be overlaid to help predict at-risk areas.

Knowing after:

As any seasoned detective can attest, reconstructing events afterwards can be a time-consuming process, with the potential to miss key evidence. Highly integrated data systems and machine learning can significantly reduce the man-hours required to uncover evidence buried across disparate data pools.

The promise of technology—what’s next?

Learn more about the future of digital policing and law enforcement in the twenty-first century.

The post Putting data on the beat—Public safety intelligence led policing appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Law enforcement agencies today have numerous of data-capturing sources—such as body cameras, computer-aided dispatch (CAD), record management systems (RMS), and automated license plate recognition (ALPR)—with the potential to provide rich insights, yet their data is often unstructured and lacks the necessary context and connections. The challenge is discerning what data is truly important and how to surface, connect, and derive meaningful intelligence and responses. From the enhanced computational power of the cloud to the sophisticated machine learning algorithms that underpin artificial intelligence, digital technology offers solutions that greatly advance law enforcement’s ability to make use of its data.

At the same time, demands on law enforcement globally are increasing due to new threats from terrorism and increasingly sophisticated criminals. Stretched budgets put greater pressure on law enforcement agencies to do more with less, every day. Increasingly public discussions and scrutiny through channels such as social media add complexity to an already challenging assignment. With all these pressures, the deceptively simple mission of law enforcement—“to serve and protect”—has never been more daunting.

How then can law enforcement overcome its big data fog and advance policing despite the constraints outlined above? While there are no easy answers here, technology can significantly increase the efficiency and reach of overtaxed police forces by improving data integration and analytics.  For example, using historical data coupled with data driven methods such as machine learning and predictive analytics, can greatly enhance law enforcement’s situational intelligence when responding to an emergency. In this way technology can serve as a strategic force multiplier when aligned to the mission, while also enhancing trust and collaboration with citizens.

Enhancing street smarts—deriving your situational intelligence

Stay tuned– in future blog posts, we’ll explore how law enforcement agencies are deriving value from their data for greater situational intelligence before, during and after incidents occur. Find out more about advancing policing in the twenty-first century with smart data.

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