“A key thing for any commander is to have a clear understanding of exactly what is happening on the ground.
From start to finish of NATO 2014, we were situationally aware. We wanted to make sure we could manage resources and respond to tactical and strategic operations as required – Excelerate’s support enabled precisely that.”
Nigel Russell, Former Gwent Police Superintendent.
Resilience against cyber threats, protests, the coordination, security and logistics of heads of state, all whilst maintaining the day-to-day operations- these were just some of the NATO Summit challenges.
Gwent police are no stranger to managing the policing and security arrangements of world leading events, having previously hosted The Ryder Cup in 2010.
In fact, the preparation and investment from prior years, proved invaluable and already provided tactical-level operations and a mobile and connected platform for the sharing of real-time video and access to Force applications.
However, the NATO Summit, whilst pre-planned to a degree, brought with it different risks and a greater scale of operation.
An officer from Gwent Police deployed at the 2010 Ryder Cup
In our specialist Resilience Technology role, we were asked to support the operation with:
- Resilience against the increasing and identified threat of cyber security breaches.
- Real-time video streaming and links from any deployed location (pre-planned & spontaneous).
- Ability to live-stream video and provide situational awareness from the Tactical teams back to multiple strategic command locations across the UK.
- Access and share critical policing & security information and applications.
- Deliver all the above points enabling the Force to deploy across a rural and urban landscape and do it in areas where there is no cellular coverage or emergency service network/Airwave coverage. Either due to the location being considered a ‘not spot’ or due to the network being congested or in extreme situations even turned off or compromised.
Despite technology evolving, these same challenges still exist today, and it’s a common problem we are asked to solve across various land mobility environments.
So just how do you solve a problem where ‘anywhere deployment & always connected’ is the prerequisite? Here’s how:
- Resilient satellite capability installed across 5 strategic locations provide mitigation against cyber security attacks & situational awareness across various bronze locations.
- Fully connected mobile vehicles enabling deployed officers access to the internet. This provided teams access to Force applications and the ability to share situational awareness.
- Real-time streaming body-worn cameras.
- Real-time streaming deployable cameras.
- A change of plan ‘no worries’ when David Cameron & Obama decided to visit a local community, Gwent Police were able to quickly deploy resources.
- Resilience Network Operations Centre and remote 24/7 support
“With just an hour’s notice, the command team for NATO was told Obama would stop at Stonehenge en route to Air Force 1. We were able to deploy one of Excelerate’s command vehicles to the site and work with Wiltshire’s local constabulary to ensure a safe visit."
The NATO Summit challenges are not unique. They are common within pre-planned and spontaneous environments. We are working closely with UK and Global Policing and security organisations to deliver innovative and scalable technology that simply enables operational and strategic teams to deliver the best outcomes within public safety.
These organisations are embracing technology as an enabler and more importantly understand that as digital adoption continues so too does the needs to consider resilience & security outside the normal communications channels.
