The City of Boulder is pleased to announce the launch of a new Public Safety Information Center, a citywide resource that leverages the latest in technology to help keep the Boulder community safe. The center will serve as a shared hub where city departments can coordinate appropriately scaled responses, based on real-time data, for natural disasters, like wildfire and flood, missing persons, serious traffic crashes and imminent threats, such as active shooter and hostage situations.
While the center will be housed at the Boulder Police Department, the city plans to utilize this resource in support of other city departments, as well, including Boulder Fire-Rescue, Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, Utilities, Transportation and Mobility, Parks and Recreation, and potentially others, reflecting a unified, cross-departmental approach to community safety.
The center will draw upon several key pieces of technology. The first is unmanned aircraft systems, or drones. The City of Boulder has used drones for enhanced public safety response for several years, but the Public Safety Information Center will provide a new, centralized home for the successful Drone as First Responder (DFR) program.
DFR, which is utilized in responses to unfolding incidents, allows first responders to have eyes on a scene within minutes, helping them gather accurate information to determine the best public safety response. Drones for this purpose are operated by the police department’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems team.
Drone deployment is not automatic for every call. Drone pilots evaluate on a case-by-case basis whether a drone could help, prioritizing situations where an aerial view improves safety, efficiency, and response. Drones may be used to support response to lower-priority calls, where a quick aerial check can confirm what's happening and avoid dispatching resources that aren't needed, as well as during high-priority incidents that call for urgent situational awareness.
"Drones give us a clear, real-time view of what's happening at a scene, which helps keep both our community members and our officers safer," said Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn. "With better information from the very first moments of a call, we can make smarter decisions right away and send exactly the right help to the right place."
The center will also serve as a coordination hub for the city’s use of drones in other contexts, allowing city staff to evaluate conditions related to utilities emergencies; large-scale community events, like the Bolder Boulder and the Sundance Film Festival; and, when wind conditions allow, reports of smoke in hard-to-reach terrain.
“We look forward to utilizing this resource to support our staff and community in new ways,” said Joe Taddeucci, Utilities Department director. “The Public Safety Information Center is the latest example of how the City of Boulder embraces innovation and collaboration to better serve those who count on us.”
"Drone technology will complement the AlertWest Wildfire video surveillance systems already in use today by our Wildland Division," said Boulder Fire-Rescue Chief Michael Calderazzo. "Having the situational awareness provided by these tools allows us to better understand the conditions that we are working with on the ground and the resources we need to deploy. That means safer responses, more crews available for critical work, and a higher level of service for our residents."
Drones from this center could also help Open Space and Mountain Parks personnel determine where trail users are during an emergency and inform evacuation plans. Any drone operations over OSMP lands will be conducted within existing laws and regulations.
The city maintains strict policies on all DFR operations to protect constitutional rights, privacy and compliance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. Drones do not conduct passive or routine surveillance, all drone flights will be tracked and documented, and footage is securely stored in accordance with Colorado records retention schedules and is subject to public records requests, supporting accountability and transparency.
The second piece of technology being expanded and used at the center is specialized software. The center will be supported through a program called Axon Fusus, which pulls from and integrates a variety of data sources, such as body-worn cameras and other information systems, to give staff a comprehensive and immediate view of ongoing emergencies and incidents.
Fusus also has a public module called the Boulder’s Community Connect Portal. This part of the integrated system allows interested community members to link their privately owned cameras to the center. This builds on an established practice. For example, following a burglary, a business owner may be asked whether they wish to provide their private security camera footage to Boulder Police investigators to aid the investigation. Participation in Boulder’s Community Connect program is entirely voluntary. The center will not be able to connect to cameras that are not owned by the city without consent. Business and community members who wish to participate share footage on their own terms, including when and under what situations. Every view is governed by City of Boulder privacy policies, role-based permissions and complete audit logs, so that each interaction with the system strikes an appropriate balance of beneficial public use and privacy.
If you are a community member or business owner who would like to register your camera for conditional and consensual use during an emergency or to share potential evidence after a public safety incident, please visit the Boulder Community Connect portal at https://connect-boulder-ef9619b0.netlify.app/.
To learn more about the city’s Public Safety Information Center and the real-time technology to support more efficient, informed and safer response, please visit the FAQ on the city’s webpage.
The City of Boulder will also be hosting several visits to the center later this summer and early fall for interested community groups, business partners, city council, members of the media and youth from our community. The center is still in its early stages of being stood up; the carpet is being installed in June! If you’d like to be added to our list to be informed about future events that involve a tour of the center, please sign up here.
