The Boston Police Department was the first paid professional public safety department in the country, and since 1838 it has been integrating innovative systems and technologies to protect the citizens of Boston. The latest technology to be part of the department's operation is NICE Inform, a next-generation recording and incidental intelligence solution to improve public-safety answering point (PSAP) and other communications services.

In choosing the NICE Inform platform, the Boston PD was looking for a solution capable of supporting its transition to IP-based communications with interoperability, as well as Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) ready public safety environment. The NICE technology is going to be deployed in three sites throughout Boston supporting different services. This includes its primary and backup 9-1-1 centers and Boston’s EMS Dispatch Operations, which is located at the Police 9-1-1 center.

The IP-based system lets the Boston PD accept SMS 9-1-1 texts when it comes online next year. And the NICE system can record these communications, whether it is voice of text. Some of the other features NICE Inform provides are: Multimedia Incident Reconstruction; Incident Intelligence Dashboards and Reporting; Audio Analytics; and Real-Time Decision Support.

"Our mission is to use innovative strategies and partnerships to protect and serve the citizens of Boston. The work we’re doing with NICE to upgrade our 9-1-1 center technology is one way we’re accomplishing that. It’s also critical to our preparation for Next Generation 9-1-1," said Shawn Romanoski, Director of Telecommunications, Boston Police Department.

The department can use NICE to record screens and synchronize it with voice recordings, which can be used for quality assurance and training. And all of these recordings as well as other records, which number around 6,000 annually by the department, can be archived using NICE Inform.

Detectives, attorneys and other organizations and individuals can now request the information and get it right away. NICE stores the files in its electronic incident folders, cross-referenced to computer aided dispatch (CAD) Incident IDs or court case numbers. This means files will always be accessible without having to worry about damage, duplications and loss.

"With their continued work with NICE, the Boston PD is now redefining what it means to be a leader by applying technology to improve service and solve everyday problems, while building a solid foundation for the future," said Christopher Wooten, Executive Vice President, NICE.

The storage and archiving options lets users define schedules for automated archiving with multiple storage features. This includes local storage to standard hard drives with a choice of 10 compression algorithms, archiving to SAN/NAS and RDX, central storage to SAN/NAS, EMC (News - Alert) Centera, or NetApp Snaplock.