Prince Albert PD puts new tech through its paces

APX President and Founder Paul Martin likes to consider it a step beyond Google Maps.

“Basically Google will take you to the front door,” he explained. “Our technology guides you inside.”

This means command centres can direct officers and responders in a much more accurate way.

“It’s the difference between saying ‘go down the hallway and turn right’ and ‘go down the hallway to room B12,” Martin said as he watched the exercise.

Prince Albert police officers responded to various scenarios involving an active shooter at the high school.

To not cause alarm they did not rush their cars to the school steps with lights flashing and sirens blaring, but all other aspects of the test were conducted as if it was a real incident.

Officers were given the layout of the school by BTIS, making it easier to coordinate a sweep of the school for the suspect, and in later scenarios, suspects.

S/Sgt. David Schluff coordinated the event from outside.

“With this new system we’re hoping it’ll be a library of everything [we] need all at once,” he said, referring to building layouts, area maps, suspect information and past records.

“It prepares our police officers as they go, since they’re going to be going into a lot of unknowns.”

As the largest high school in Saskatchewan, Carlton proved to be an excellent location to test the new system.

PaNOW wasn’t given access to the post-trial debrief, but at the scene organizers were pleased with the results.

“We couldn’t ask for a better scenario to test the technology,” Martin said.

Prince Albert is the first city to test a system like BTIS.

Major centres such as Los Angeles and Toronto have been focusing on digitally mapping their cities, but according to Martin they don’t have any applications for their data.

He believes Prince Albert is the first city in North America, and possibly even the world, to take advantage of digital mapping technology for first responders.

“There’s a lot of excitement about what we’re doing here in PA today from a technology standpoint, and as part of the larger picture,” he said.

The Prince Albert Fire Department and the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Board mapped out the information for Carlton.

Information from other buildings around Prince Albert will be entered into the system by building owners.

The fire department has already mapped several buildings in PA, which are stored on a secure server.

Testing will continue for the next two years to polish and refine the system.

Schluff said he wants to use BTIS “hopefully forever.”

A second test runs Sunday morning with SWAT officers.

ssterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit

by Spencer Sterritt

Prince Albert PD puts new tech through its paces

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