By Kyle S. Richardson, FirstNet Public Affairs

Members of FirstNet recently attended the third annual Safety “Datapalooza” at the US Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, VA.  A Datapalooza is a day for demonstrations involving open data tools, announcing open data news that highlights the work of hackathons and data jams, and showcasing finished products.  The event, organized by Dan Morgan, Chief Data Officer at the US Department of Transportation, featured several lightning round speaking sessions from representatives across the federal government, industry, and non-profit sectors.  The speakers highlighted available resources for technological solutions and provided case studies on how data has been used to improve public safety services.

Maria Roat, the Chief Technology Officer at the DOT, provided the keynote address and Kelly Regal, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Associate Administrator for Research and Technology shared how the DOT studied more than 22,000 days of sleep data & more than 3,000 duty cycles to help keep drivers safe.  DJ Patil, the U.S. Chief Data Scientist at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), discussed the need for public-private partnerships, “the federal sector needs to listen to those who input public safety data (local police, fire, EMS) & determine the appropriate action.” Kristen T. Honey, the Policy Advisor at White House OSTP shared how the Disaster.Data.Gov website hosts more than 5,000 open datasets for public safety.  Clarence Wardell, a Presidential Innovation Fellow, talked about the White House Police Data Initiative, and how technology, transparency, data and data analysis are important to the future of policing and how data can be used as a convening force for community engagement.  Meredith Lee, Science & Technology Policy Fellow on the Data and Innovation team at the Department of Homeland Security, and co-founder of the Nation of Makers, talked about all the disaster response innovation that’s happening across the country, in places like Brooklyn, NY, where the first Civic Hardware Hackathon for Disaster Preparedness was held.

Several representatives on hand talked about improving the impact data can have when in the right hands, like Jonathan Midgett from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission who said the agency is working to equip firefighters with better equipment for reporting data.  Retired FDNY firefighter Edward Gabriel talked about the evolution of public safety datasets, “We all need to keep an open mind to all types of technology and to ideas from all kinds of people,” he said.  “I've seen data change...the federal government is now taking big data and making it available for citizens and first responders.”

Gabriel, now the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health and Human Services, talked about the need for resiliency and redundancy within public safety technology. “What will happen when batteries fail? When WiFi, cell networks go down?,” Gabriel rhetorically asked. The retired FDNY firefighter also talked about how to overcome cell service outages and lack of Wi-Fi, by linking user devices to each other to create a network between all registered devices, and tools which can track people with electricity dependent medical devices.

Denice Ross, a Presidential Innovation Fellow with the Department of Energy, talked about a power outage map for first responders located on their website.  Stacey Arnesen, the Chief of the Disaster Information Management Resource Center at the National Institutes of Health, talked about “Digital Go Bags”, which are stand alone apps not requiring cell or Wi-Fi to help get critical information out to the public and first responders. 

Several presenters discussed case studies on innovative ways open and available data is being used.  Ricky Gonzales, Data Scientist from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, talked about working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service to develop ‘Heat App’, easily one of the most popular federal government apps with over 200,000 downloads.  The app calculates the heat index for worksites and displays a risk level to outdoor workers to prevent heat illnesses.  Nancy Rodriguez, Director of the National Institute of Justice, reported that the agency recently held an Ultra High Speed Challenge Apps Challenge.  In response to the challenge, two sheriffs from Bonneville County, Idaho, and the city of Ammon, ID – Bruce Patterson and Captain Samuel Hulse – provided a demo of a School Emergency Screencast Application they developed.  The app’s goal is to reduce response time during school shootings at educational institutes, using available Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and technology that detect gunshot alerts, and to send live video, map and location to dispatch.   

Also on hand was a group of representatives from industry, including Bayes Impact, a Silicon Valley non-profit who’s mantra, “We use data science to save lives”, will be on display at an upcoming Hackathon in San Francisco, CA.  An app called Smoke Signals, which gathers local fire incident data, assists local governments who need help implementing this analytics project and making the data easier to understand.  The concept for the app sprung from working with New Orleans' Fire Department to develop a model that identified New Orleans blocks least likely to have smoke alarms, and most likely to experience a fire fatality. They duplicated the model to apply to cities within the 30 largest 'Metropolitan Statistical Areas', and have now gained respect from fire departments across the country.

FirstNet is pleased with the opportunity to attend events like this to learn about all the data available to public safety and tools that can be implemented in public safety agencies in all 56 states and territories.  We hope to see continued innovation from available public safety datasets and improved access to this data through the nationwide public safety broadband network.

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