Zebra Technologies will demonstrate three technology pillars to unlock the digital future of EMEA’s public safety sector at Critical Communications World (CCW) 14-16 May 2024 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, stand N40.
Recent floods in the UAE were a reminder that emergency services need the right tools, including technology, to help those in need when an emergency strikes, with National Ambulance responding to 1,426 urgent calls across the Northern Emirates says one report. In fact, the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services responded to emergencies involving 235,394 individuals in 2023, with record response times.
Today’s Middle East and European public safety professionals, including police, ambulance, fire and rescue, and military are faced with changing and challenging expectations, greater volumes of data, budget scrutiny and the rapid pace of technology developments.
Addressing these challenges and opportunities needs to be underpinned by the acceleration of digitisation across operations to improve communications in the field. Zebra proposes three technology pillars to enhance critical communications, provide front-line personnel with new levels of mobile digitisation via rugged mobile computing, and equip them with digitised asset tracking and management.
“Across the Middle East and Europe, we’re seeing emergency services organisations increasingly turn to rugged handheld devices to give professionals in the field a mobile ‘digital desk’ with the connectivity and applications they need for operational work wherever they are,” said Oliver Ledgard, Public Safety Strategy Director, EMEA, Zebra Technologies. “Asset-heavy services like fire, police, ambulance and military are turning to handheld mobile computing and radio frequency identification (RFID) to track and locate assets to eliminate lost time, supplies and equipment and help ensure better emergency responsiveness.”
Some of Zebra’s emergency services customers across EMEA include:
- A police service utilising Zebra L10 rugged tablets, giving them a handheld mobile solution in their vehicles. They can check vehicle and personal IDs, photograph, and scan documents, capture evidence, check arrest-list databases, and digitise their field operations. The tablets have eliminated the need for paper-based processes and time-intensive trips to the police station as these activities can be done in real time, providing logistical and time efficiencies.
- A fire and rescue service utilising a solution featuring Zebra’s fixed RFID readers and mobile computing to optimise the distribution, management and use of personal protective equipment (PPE), saving more than £600k over the 10-year lifespan of the PPE.
- And a recent logistics transformation project for the military utilising handheld mobile computers, software and services resulted in an 83% reduction in time taken to conduct daily equipment account checks at each site across hundreds of locations, and a 93% decrease in the time taken to receive pallets.
Enhancing its event offering this year are new virtual reality (VR) ambulance and police scene of crime tours at Zebra’s booth, designed by two active firefighters turned entrepreneurs who are passionate about using VR and holofan technology for public safety. The tour will allow attendees to put on a VR head set and explore a range of healthcare and responder computing devices and RFID solutions that help ensure crews count and track assets and supplies.
