Information Management Capabilities in Public Safety and Security : Challenges, Strategies and Frameworks

This book provides thoughtful and extensively researched perspectives, to improve understanding of risks and rewards, and to outline strategies for developing and implementing mature information management capabilities focused on core public safety and security outcomes.

Decision makers in Canadian public safety and security organizations – law enforcement, fire and paramedic services, emergency management and national security, from local to national scopes and scales – are faced with an onslaught of rapidly changing technologies with uncertain application in an increasingly complex safety and security. How do these technologies fit into a strategic information management capability for public safety and security organizations? How do these technologies impact other areas of the organization? How can we harness these technologies to improve safety and security outcomes for Canadians? How would information governance strategy, governance and resourcing need to be structured and how would this function in the current operating environment and how would ethics, standards, privacy and information sharing and protection mechanisms need to be addressed in the face of compliance with legislation, regulation or policy?

This volume makes the case for adopting strategic IM mindsets and practices intended to address a range of persistent IM challenges in public safety and security such as: building mature analytics and information sharing capabilities; building ethics, privacy, security and standards into IM governance aligned with public safety and security outcomes.

The book is intended for senior decision makers in organizations that have responsibilities to delivery on core public safety and security outcomes and rely on information management to do so. These decision-makers face rapidly changing technologies in an increasingly complex business environment, face pressures for talent management and face risk-laden practices that impede or constrain the optimal use of information to achieve these outcomes for their organizations.

Fraser Moffatt is a Defence Scientist working for Defence Research and Development Canada’s Centre for Security Science. Mr. Moffatt earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Geography at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His undergraduate studies focused on geographic information science while his graduate studies focused on the application of empirical spatial analysis methods to theories of environmental criminology. His master’s thesis developed a framework for the application of Bayesian probability to the spatial prediction of residential break and enter occurrences in an urban setting. Mr. Moffatt spent the early part of his professional career in law enforcement and public safety organizations, conducting applied research and analysis on a wide variety of operational problems. Between 2000 and 2005, Mr. Moffatt held sessional lecturer positions in graduate and undergraduate courses in Geography and Environmental Science at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. Since 2009, Mr. Moffatt has focused on military and public safety information management problems and has delivered R&D advice, assistance and solutions at local, national and international levels including municipal, provincial and federal public safety organizations in Canada and for the United Nations Department of Safety and Security. Mr. Moffatt served as a deployed operational research analyst and advisor for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Training Mission in Afghanistan (NTM-A). Mr. Moffatt currently serves as a technical advisor on the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Committee.

Brian Rector graduated in 1983 with a Ph.D. (Psychology) from the University of Manitoba. For the first 35 years of his professional career, he was employed with the Government of Saskatchewan as director of psychology/treatment positions in fields such as developmental disabilities, child welfare, youth and adult correctional services. During this time Dr. Rector collaborated with the U.S. Department of Justice: Probation and Pre-Trial Services, in training, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based practices. He has collaborated with multiple Canadian Universities in the fields of Forensic Psychology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Public Health and Economics.

Prior to his recent retirement from the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), Dr. Rector was the inaugural Senior Director of the Community Solutions Branch.  He supervised a team of senior scientists in the fields of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Applied Statistics. The team works within a cloud-based secure data lab that can include data from external police services. Projects involve various combinations of EPS subject-matter experts and university scientists reflecting the skill sets required for each initiative. All research initiatives involving university partners are reviewed and approved by their respective Ethics Research Board. The primary purpose of these initiatives is to improve public safety outcomes. Examples of initiatives included:  1. Missing Persons – in collaboration with Peel Regional Police Services; 2. Improving investigation technologies via the development of Informative AI to instantaneously analyze all unstructured and structured records across operating systems; 3. Psychoactive Substances, in collaboration with Statistics Canada, involving integrated analysis of multiple data sets. Dr. Rector is a registered psychologist in Alberta.