Technology does a lot for us. It makes our lives easier and more convenient and helps us stay connected to each other. It also helps keep us safe. Technology has long been used in public safety. From the moment telegraphs were first used to summon law officers to the latest tech that we’ll discuss below, technology has been used to help keep us safe.
What technology will keep us safe in the future though? As we enter 2021, there are many tech aspects to so much of the apparatus that addresses public safety. There is some tech, though, that will potentially have a much larger impact on public safety than others.
To help predict what technology will have the biggest impact on public safety in 2021, we looked at some of the most important safety-related technology out there in 2020. The technology being used in public safety throughout the last year that has the biggest potential going forward lands on our list of the five key technologies for public safety in 2021.
1. Smart Security Cameras
Many of the technologies on this list address public safety issues on a large scale. But the first technology on this list puts control over people’s own home and business security in their hands. Smart security cameras, part of the Internet of Things (IoT), have reduced the cost and complexity of security monitoring systems and provide the public more control over their own security than ever before.
Smart security cameras are easy for a novice to install and use and, since all the video is stored in the cloud, costs a lot less to own and operate. They are small and can be easily and inconspicuously mounted to an interior or exterior wall or even installed as part of a doorbell system. In 2021, these smart security cameras will become even more ubiquitous and do a great deal for the overall safety of the public.
2. Data Encryption Software
The global pandemic of 2020 has made some things abundantly clear. One is that the more data we put online, the more risk there is of that data being compromised. More people worked, shopped, met, and put sensitive personal information online than ever in 2020. Even as the world hopefully returns to some semblance of normal in 2021, the amount of time people spend online will likely not recede much, if at all.
As more and more of people’s personal identification and financial information is sent online, there will be more bad actors trying to steal that information. Data encryption will help fight the bad guys and make sure your information stays private and reaches its intended destination safely and securely. More big businesses will put an emphasis in 2021 on encrypting their front and backend sites and personal data encryption will become more important as well.
3. Data Loggers
Barring yet another virus coming at us from left field, COVID-19 vaccines are the way that the world will return to normalcy in 2021. Now that the vaccines are developed, the challenge of 2021 is to distribute the vaccines to the 7+ billion people around the globe who need it.
One of the biggest logistical challenges that will come with these vaccines is that many of them must be kept cold to maintain their effectiveness and safety. Some need only relatively easy-to-achieve levels of subzero temperatures, around -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) while others must be kept in a deep freeze, around -70 Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit).
It is imperative for public safety that these temperatures are maintained and data loggers will facilitate this. As Dickson notes here, data loggers are the industry standard for temperature monitoring, which will be particularly important given the unprecedented vaccine distribution that will be taking place in 2021.
4. Biometrics And Facial Recognition
How many passwords do you have? With every additional password, it becomes progressively more difficult to keep them all straight--which is frustrating. Yet if you use only one or two, your information may be at risk. In 2021, traditional passwords and even two-factor authentication will start to become less significant as biometrics and facial recognition technology increase.
These technologies will use biometric data, identification characteristics that are 100% unique to you, as your password for the things you most want to protect. In 2020, your face or your fingerprint can already open your iPhone. In 2021, these features, along with your voice, your eyes, and maybe even your DNA will start to protect everything from your personal computer to your bank account. Technologies like these in 2021 hopefully signal the start of making fraud a thing of the past.
5. Artificial Intelligence
We may not have robot butlers or self-flying cars in 2021, but we will be using artificial intelligence (AI) to make the public safer in the coming year. AI has so many implications for public safety that, whether you are aware of it working for you, it will assuredly affect your life in 2021 and beyond.
AI is increasing public safety by processing incredible amounts of data and helping experts come to better conclusions faster, preventing human error, or catching things that the human eye or brain just can't process.
In the healthcare industry, AI is helping produce better patient outcomes by improving medical professional’s decision making. In law enforcement, it is helping catch criminals who think they have outsmarted the authorities. On the internet, it is helping prevent data theft by monitoring data transmission for abnormalities. AI is already all around you and will continue to be in the future.
Conclusion
The year 2021 will hopefully be a lot better and a lot less stressful for the public than 2020. One thing you can almost guarantee, though, is that it will be safer for the public. Thanks to technology like smart security cameras, data encryption software, data loggers, biometrics and facial recognition, and AI, our world will become safer for us all.
