Unison: A unified public safety deployment AI solution

The Problem

Cities across Canada are experiencing a public safety crisis, and Edmonton is not immune. While various business areas and external partners across the Corporation are engaged in numerous safety initiatives, there is a significant lack of data-driven integration and alignment. Without a unified approach, these disparate efforts struggle to keep pace with the demand, making it difficult to proactively deploy safety resources where they are most needed.

The Solution

Unison is a public safety deployment technology designed to create a common operating picture across municipal and community partners. By integrating previously siloed data, the solution aims to align people and processes to ensure the "right resource is at the right place at the right time". It includes Decide, a predictive analytics tool that uses AI to forecast high-risk locations, providing tailored interactive heat maps for proactive resource deployment and Track, an evaluation tool that monitors neighborhood-level demand trends, allowing teams to measure the impact of their interventions over time. Unison was built using open source tools within existing budget.

The Impact

Unison helps transition teams from reactive response to proactive deployment, ranking locations based on the probability of demand. Unison is currently utilized by over 20 internal and external organizations in Edmonton -- shared freely as a pubic service to those in public safety operations.

Lessons Learned

The project demonstrated that integrating data is the most effective way to align people and processes in public safety operations.

Launch year: 2022