3 Ways 5G Can Impact Law Enforcement Technology
In some major cities across the country, 5G is already available, and soon, the rest of the world will be able to experience its impact. As 5G gets closer to becoming a reality, public safety officials are asking how this shift will impact modern policing.
5G enables low latency applications and provides high bandwidth resolutions, both of which help technology such as body and dash cameras, facial recognition, and AI perform at its best—and in real time. Keep in mind that there will be no switch that flips and suddenly makes 5G available to every law enforcement agency. Instead, think of this as a pathway to 5G that starts with the already available Gigabit-Class LTE, which is the ongoing expansion of 4G LTE.
Gigabit-Class LTE brings police departments one step closer to 5G, providing many of the same benefits for public safety workers as 5G will. These benefits include enabling several specific pieces of technology that are transforming a police officer’s job.
Robotics
When it comes to dangerous circumstances like a SWAT standoff or a hostage situation, police officers try to avoid entering a sieged building and putting their lives on the line. We’ve already seen robots taking on this role with the help of LTE. As Gigabit-Class LTE adoption increases, we will see even more dramatic feature improvements available to police officers, and 5G will only further enhance them.
Operating as mini-tanks, robots are equipped with video, audio and weapons that officers control from a safe distance over Wi-Fi—but as the latency improves with Gigabit-Class LTE, the robot can achieve more meticulous operations including more subtle steering maneuvers, audio from the robot will be clearer and, when necessary, police officers will be more accurate when using the robot’s weaponry. Additionally, with the increased network speeds, augmented reality is becoming not only possible but enabling officers with a real-time point-of-view perspective and better situational awareness.
Drones
FlyMotion is one company already supplying drones to law enforcement. For example, when a 9-year-old girl went missing in Florida, authorities searched for the girl using one of FlyMotion’s drones and live streamed video footage from the drone back to police headquarters. With this footage, authorities were able to find the girl in under 24 hours.
The faster network speeds of Gigabit-Class LTE can help give situations like this a happy ending by allowing drones with thermal imaging to see better—not just during the day but also at night—and transmit clearer, crisper pictures to law enforcement officers. Essentially, police now have a set of eyes and ears in the sky.
Camera Surveillance
The CCTV of yesterday was black and white, grainy, and unable to produce an image without proper lighting. Today, the clarity is superb, the color resolution is life-like and with Gigabit-Class LTE and 5G, video can become an invaluable resource.
Gigabit-Class LTE is opening the door to all new possibilities for video technology. With a faster, higher bandwidth connection, surveillance cameras are able to implement computer vision, which monitors its area of vision for certain red flags. When the computer records an unusual pattern—such as a person wearing a face mask in the summer or carrying a gun in public—it can then automatically alert the authorities.
As more departments adopt Gigabit-Class LTE and 5G begins rolling out to more cities, the job of a police officer is set to evolve. By allowing technology to face the most dangerous parts of the job, police officers and their communities will be better protected.
