In order to improve community safety, law enforcement officers need to be better protected. Police officers face a plethora of risks when they’re on the job. It's an inherent and understood part of the career. Officers face real threats on the job. Every day, they run the risk of exposure to gun violence from offenders, overexertion from maneuvering with a duty belt or bulletproof vest, and exposure to dangerous chemicals. 

But there’s a lesser known risk to a police officer safety — responding to emergencies on the road.

Every day in the United States, first responders like police officers must navigate congested highways and dangerous roads to respond to traffic accidents, 911 calls, active crime scenes, and all other emergencies. Many members of the motoring public aren't aware of how much danger they face from just the other drivers around them. 

As we reported in the Cost of Collisions, an average of 12,200 roadway responses occur every day in the United States, where responders are under the threat of everyday drivers hitting, clipping, or colliding with them as they drive by. Those collisions may lead to costly vehicle repairs, police officer injury, or even death. 

Not only do those collisions lead to police officer injury or death, but they can also result in costly vehicle repairs. The aforementioned Cost of Collisions notes that the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) calculated that the average cost of a fatal collision involving a regular citizen is $11.2 million. This breakdown includes the average cost of emergency services, medical services, lost wages and fringe benefits, household productivity loss, insurance processing, workplace costs, legal costs, and congestion impacts. 

The community feels these costs. When police officers are injured or their vehicles are out of commission, that’s less resources to protect the community. There are a number of tried and true policing tactics that help keep the community safe. For example, lights and sirens are invaluable tools for keeping police officers and members of the community safe on the road. They’ll always remain an important part of policing tactics.

However, those analog tools on their own are no longer enough to keep officers and the community at large safe. But when police departments implement new public safety technology into existing processes they have the opportunity to completely transform community safety.

Public safety technology and the future of policing

Implementing public safety technology into police departments has the opportunity to create more smart cities across the country. A smart city refers to an area where technology and data collection are leveraged to improve the quality of life for its residents. As Police1 says, once that information is collected and analyzed, those results are communicated to city decision-makers. Then, local officials can take actions to improve operations and manage assets that citizens access.

For example, take a simple task like a garbage truck from your city’s waste management company picking up your waste bin every week. In a smart city, those waste bins would have sensors. They could notify the waste management company to pick it up when they sense that the bin is full. This saves citizens time and money, along with reducing pollution. 

A similar concept can be applied to law enforcement by redirecting efforts to community policing instead of labor-intensive and sometimes tedious work. Police officers are obviously pulled in a number of different directions and have a lot of different tasks to juggle. Smart technology can streamline regular tasks like community patrolling. For example, a smart city could adopt streetlights that alert maintenance teams when a malfunction has occurred. This gives officers the lighting they need to ensure an area is clear and pursue a suspect when the time calls for it.

Police technology has come a long way, but new innovations are constantly hitting the market. While it may feel intimidating to implement brand-new software, they provide a number of benefits to departments:

• Improved officer situational awareness: New technology provides police officers with the real-time data they need to stay informed in potentially dangerous situations and make informed decisions quickly.
• Enhanced evidence collection: As Secure Redact says, accurate and reliable evidence collection is crucial in the justice process. Smart police technology  can manage video footage efficiently and securely while protecting the privacy of those captured in that footage.
• Streamlined administrative processes: New automated systems help departments improve department operational efficiency by streamlining processes such as reporting, records management, and case tracking.
• Quicker communication between officers: Cutting-edge integrated communication systems improve communication by enabling officers to share crucial information with each other in real time. 
• Thorough officer training: New public safety technology can provide more immersive training opportunities for officers so they can safely develop the skills needed in high-pressure situations.
• Stronger community outreach: With new technology, departments can better engage with the community to foster a positive and transparent dialogue. 

Public safety technology to create safer and smarter communities that better serve all citizens. New solutions are constantly hitting the market, meaning there are a variety of options with different use cases and benefits to protect your officers and community. 

Safer communities start with safer police officers

Law enforcement departments around the country are facing a police officer shortage. While police officer hiring nationwide went up in 2023 for the first time in years, individual departments around the U.S. are speaking out about their struggles to recruit and retain police officers.

Take the Long Beach Police Department. In April 2024, it reported that staffing was dangerously low. Lt. Rich Chambers said it was the largest number of vacancies he had seen in over 25 years, noting the department was down more than 100 sworn positions. 

He told ABC 7 they budgeted for just about 824 officers to protect a community of about 500,000 people safe. Police officers and detectives had needed to work extra shifts in patrol each month to cover for the shortage. 

"An example is that a detective would normally just be tasked with investigating one of these crimes once they occurred, but that detective right now also has the responsibility of going out and putting a uniform on and working a patrol shift a number of times per month to make sure we have enough officers on the streets," said Chambers.

Being a police officer is already a demanding, stressful, and often dangerous job. Dealing with a personnel shortage increases those stressors ten-fold. When a department is strained, that impacts its ability to serve the community. Limited resources lead to longer response times, which can be the difference between life or death.

But the good news is that emerging public safety technology can help alleviate these issues for police departments. These tools can streamline administrative processes and increase protection for officers. That will enable police officers to dedicate more time to better serving the community. 

For example, active crime scenes are understandably dangerous for both police officers and members of the community. But new technology is helping to alleviate some of the dangers for all involved.

Police departments can now utilize thermal imaging solutions to detect heat from objects, people, or animals. That data is converted into a heat map that officers can leverage in order to execute safer and more efficient search and rescue missions.

Similarly, police officers can now leverage gunshot detection tools to detect and confirm gunshots in the area. As OpenFox says, this enables officers to respond faster to gunshots and increases their odds of tracking down the suspect. This advanced warning also enables police departments to notify the public through social media of active gunshots and when to shelter in place. 

Collision avoidance systems like digital alerting tools can also keep police officers and community members safer on the road, as they’ve been proven to reduce the risk of collision by 90 percent, compared to traditional lights alone.

Protect all roadway users with digital alerting

A digital alert system is an electronic notification sent directly to a driver. This technology, which is a form of vehicle-to-everything communication, enables emergency vehicles to broadcast life-saving digital alerts that protect all roadway users. 

Safety Cloud® by HAAS Alert is the leading digital alerting system built with first responder safety in mind. It broadcasts digital alerts to drivers up to 30 seconds before they come into contact with a roadway hazard. These messages notify drivers of an upcoming roadway hazard and prompt them to slow down, and move over. 

These messages notify the motoring public that there is a nearby or upcoming roadway hazard, such as a police officer responding on the side of the road, and they need to slow down and move over. Tools like Safety Cloud aid drivers earlier in making safer, smarter driving decisions, making it a key component of roadway safety. 

Safety Cloud digital alerts reach drivers through ways they cannot miss. A visual alert, accompanied by an audio warning, shows up on compatible vehicle infotainment systems and leading navigation applications. This effectively gets drivers’ attention earlier so they have time to slow down and move over.

Once the service is activated inside a vehicle, officers automatically begin to broadcast alerts the light bar is switched on. The motoring public receives alerts through compatible in-vehicle infotainment centers and leading navigation apps. They’re notified of your presence when you are actively responding in their vicinity. 

They cannot see your location beyond that. When a light bar is turned off, your vehicle will cease sending out alerts. Simply put, drivers are only alerted in the situations when a law enforcement officer needs to be seen — when there's an emergency and that officer needs the roads cleared for them. 

The benefits of digital alerting

Digital alerts are more than just emergency vehicle preemption (EVP). EVP gives emergency response vehicles, like police cars, a green light as they approach an intersection. At the same time, it provides a red light to conflicting approaches to give emergency responders clearance. On the contrary, digital alerting has nothing to do with traffic lights.

When an emergency vehicle broadcasts a digital alert, that message notifies nearby drivers to slow down and move over, instead of completely stopping for a red light. Digital alerting gives the motoring public plenty of notice to clear the way for approaching first responders.

Safety Cloud also helps officers coordinate with other responding agencies, which is crucial if your department is experiencing a personnel shortage. Safety Cloud not only offers a solution to alert the motoring public, but it also has Responder-to-Responder alerting, which is a service that lets first responders know when other Safety Cloud®-equipped emergency vehicles are actively responding and are approaching the same intersection as your vehicle. 

Deputy Fire Chief Larry Fox of Mount Laurel Fire Department echoed the importance of this service. His department implemented Safety Cloud to better protect his crew on the road. But he realized the benefit it would have on his fellow first responders in other agencies, too.

“Mount Laurel EMS and Police don’t have these systems in their vehicles,” Deputy Chief Fox explained. “But anytime we’re responding to a crash, there’s going to be a police officer there — sometimes an ambulance, too. They’ll benefit from the early warning as much as us.”

Public safety technology leads to stronger community policing

Community policing is focused on creating a stronger bond with the citizens living and working in the area they serve. This policing technique focuses on creating a safer environment for all by building a stronger partnership between the local police department and its residents. 

Community policing leads to residents trusting and having a favorable view of their local law enforcement, along with providing an opportunity for residents to participate with law enforcement in order to keep their own community safe.

When departments implement public safety technology into their policing strategies, they set themselves up for success by streamlining tedious processes and protecting all officers. When a department isn't strained, it can put that time and effort back into keeping its community safe.

Lights and sirens continue to be a great tool for policing. But you can extend their reach with Safety Cloud. Download the Safety Cloud for Law Enforcement guide to learn more about what digital alerting can do to keep your community safe.