If you look at figures released by the Inter-American
Development Bank, it suggests a spend on security of around
$260bn, which is roughly 3.5 per cent of the region’s GDP.
What specific problems can be identified when
it comes to public safety communications in
the region?
When I look at public safety in general in Latin America, there
are some key areas where organisations are looking to develop
their capabilities to effectively operate across the different
emergency services.
First, many of them don’t operate on just one network or
one standard of two-way radio technology. For instance, some
may still have legacy networks, or disparate ones, with agencies
using different technologies and not being able to communicate
with each other. It’s a mixed bag, with coverage often being an
issue as well.
Another challenge – and this isn’t just in Latin America –
is that a lot of work is still being carried out manually,
with information maintained, for example, on paper rather
than digitally.
This makes it more difficult than it could be to reduce crime
because there is no way to address the data coming in from
different sources. When you factor in continuing issues
around funds and resources, the ability to access data
from multiple sources digitally and in real time becomes
incredibly important.
Going back to the subject of the networks across the different
countries, again, it’s a mixed bag. Unlike in Europe, for
example, there is not one preferred radio standard facilitating
cross-border communications between countries. Chile uses
P25, for instance, whereas Peru is TETRA. I believe Mexico is
the only country in the region to use Tetrapol.
What is Motorola Solutions doing to help address
those problems, for instance around dispatch, the
analysis of data and so on?
We’ve been doing a lot of work, for example in Colombia,
where the government has really started to evolve their
emergency services communications.
We started as a technology partner with a P25 radio system
for the national police, after which we worked specifically
Motorola Solutions’ vicepresident
for Latin America,
Alex Castañeda
with the city of Bogotá, looking at how their dispatch centre
might look in the coming years. They subsequently made an
investment in a state-of-the-art CAD system.
In Latin America, we’re working with our CommandCentral
solution, the three big components of which are call-taking,
the CAD solution, and also records management. We are also
deploying ancillary technologies, such as body-worn video.
Going back to the subject of public safety
networks within the region, what conversations are
currently taking place in relation to broadband?
Again, the situation is different depending on what part of
Latin America is being discussed. We’re certainly working
with customers who are testing broadband technology in an
operational context.
Countries generally haven’t invested in LTE for public
safety on a national level. There are some big carrier
companies, but as yet no dedicated spectrum. Clearly, elements
such as pre-emption, prioritisation, quality of service and so
on are also absolutely vital in the consideration of LTE for
public safety.
A lot of work is going on at device and application level,
but not necessarily when it comes to LTE networks on a
national level.
As you’ve identified, the COVID-19 pandemic is
likely to have a profound impact, not just in Latin
America but across the world. Finally, could you
tell me about some of the technologies being
developed by Motorola Solutions which might help
mitigate the impact of the virus?
We’re developing a variety of solutions across different areas of
the business. For instance, the area of video security solutions
has brought through a technology which allows us to monitor
social distancing using security cameras.
We can deploy a camera in a particular space, for example
an office, where the onboard analytics solution can identify
people who are too close to each other. A related functionality
is the ability to be able to tell whether someone is wearing a face
mask. Again, that’s enabled by video analytics.
We’re always here to help our customers to be prepared for
the next emergency.
October 2020 @CritCommsToday 13