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Police officers often need to make split-second decisions with little to no information. They need to be able to quickly access relevant information on community members during a traffic stop or a call in order to gauge the level of threat they may be walking into.
Unfortunately, most police technology is outdated. Information from previous 911 calls and law enforcement interactions is often stored across multiple databases. In order to pull relevant data, dispatchers often have to search 10 or more systems during a 911 call, wasting valuable time and leaving room for error. And when these individual databases are slow, or outdated (as many are), officers find themselves largely flying blind into whatever situation they’re encountering.
Knowing relevant information can greatly change the outcomes of police-community interactions. With this in mind, McGregor founded ForceMetrics, an innovative platform designed to give police officers, dispatchers, and co-responders reliable information, such as a quick snapshot of prior police contact (if any) or if they have been the victim of domestic violence, quickly and accurately. The benefits to officers – and public safety – are already becoming apparent.
“We have the ability to take what would normally take six hours and make it two minutes,” says McGregor.
All information is pulled from public records. Color-coded labels highlight medical conditions, struggles with mental health, and gun violence incidents, among other categories. The most pertinent info appears first so officers are quickly empowered to understand the situation at hand.
“ForceMetrics tells a story in a way that a person isn’t just a dot on a map,” says McGregor. “It tells the social story of the person, which is just as important.”