By Joe Rozek, Executive Director, Homeland Security and Counter Terrorism, Microsoft
The big game is this weekend, and nearly 200,000 football fans are expected to flock to the Dallas, Texas area to be part of this year’s Super Bowl. That enormous influx of people brings excitement and a boost to the local economy, but it also poses unique security challenges. The Super Bowl has become a “level one” national security event in the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which means that the only team more dedicated to this game than the Packers and Steelers is the Arlington, Texas Police Department.
Cowboys Stadium
Ensuring the safety of football fans involves stakeholders ranging from federal agencies like DHS to the Texas Department of Public Safety, but the host city’s law enforcement professionals are always at the center of the action, coordinating the entire effort. National events like the Super Bowl are unique because of the sheer volume of information that must be managed. More people requires more resources to track, more personnel to manage, and more crime tips to investigate. Communications, collaboration and intelligence analysis processes have to be seamless and real-time.
To support this incredible security effort, the Arlington Police Department is partnering with Microsoft and ESRI to make information collection and analysis more efficient. A tool called Fusion Core Solution (FCS) will be used to centrally track resources, personnel, and leads on suspicious activity. The real benefit comes from analysis and collaboration, because officers can search through requests, log updates based on new information, identify trends, collaborate in real-time with other law enforcement agencies, and leverage mapping/visualization technologies to make sense of critical data. It’s the second year in a row that host city of the Super Bowl is leveraging the technology, and customers are finding value in it because FCS allows law enforcement personnel to focus on keeping people safe, rather than spending valuable time and resources sifting through raw data.
Arlington, TX via Bing Maps
The Arlington, Texas Police Department has done an incredible job preparing for this year’s Super Bowl and we hope everyone enjoys the game on Sunday!