MAPLE GROVE, MINN., — GUARDIAN RFID, a global leader in inmate tracking systems for more than 17 years, has announced the launch of its officer experience platform (OXP), Command Cloud®, the only purpose-built OXP designed to equip correctional officers with all the tools required to create safe and secure environments.
Command Cloud is an integrated suite of applications and services that deliver a common operating picture (COP) — a consolidated display of relevant information designed to improve awareness, collaboration, insight and discoverability among corrections officers in any facility. It leverages new and existing cameras, RFID and vision systems, and will integrate with more than 80 different applications currently in use today in correctional facilities including offender management, jail management and case management systems. Command Cloud is a cloud-based platform paired with ruggedized mobile devices and can be easily deployed and up-and-running within days.
“Correctional professionals have one the highest rates of non-fatal, work-related injuries of any profession in the United States1, and inmate altercations continue to be problematic,” said Ken Dalley, founder and Chief Warrior of GUARDIAN RFID. “But modernizing the technology and tools that are used by officers has the potential to create high levels of situational awareness, increase officer retention and decrease dangerous situations. Command Cloud brings all the critical information right to officers and creates a communications framework to empower teams to improve safety and security.”
Modernizing jail systems benefits all
Historically, correctional facilities — who employ more than 480,000 people in the U.S. — have relied on manual reporting, siloed technology systems and stand-alone apps for operational awareness. But this has left them with blind spots leading to negative results such as allowing inmates into unapproved locations, missing equipment or coordinated assaults on inmates and officers, most of which could have been preventable.
Based on the most sophisticated computer vision, RFID, facial recognition, machine learning/AI and mobile technologies on the market, Command Cloud enables real-time situational awareness, a term used in public safety to refer to complete visibility into operational data and context that leads to fast decision-making. Command Cloud unifies data from disparate systems, provides context and allows correctional officers to execute decisions quickly with higher situational awareness and greater collaboration.
Command Cloud addresses common challenges within correctional facilities such as:
● Awareness
o Automatically identify assets and alert officers of improper movement or missing items such as workshop tools or kitchen equipment
o Automatically monitor human movements and locations to manage secure or restricted access and keep designated groups in approved locations
● Collaboration
o Improve safety and security by aggregating data and context from disparate jail operating systems to improve situational awareness
o Communicate among officer teammates to quickly provide status updates or request assistance or intervention
● Insight
o Enable correctional officers to capture digital notes tied to specific inmates or activities for proper record keeping
o Quickly assess facility performance to isolate and address operational issues
● Discoverability
o Confirm inmate identities for access to locations, medical treatment, commissary, inmate release and more
o Cross-reference inmate data for keep-separates, dietary restrictions and actionable data points
“Too often, bad things happen on camera that go unnoticed in real-time. Officers or inmates are assaulted in plain view but without an elevated level of situational awareness, response times are delayed,” said Greg Piper, director of Academy, GUARDIAN RFID. “When we bring together all relevant operational data and monitoring systems, we increase the awareness, provide the right context and can work toward reducing both the number and severity of incidents.”
The system is a welcome addition to correctional facilities that are experiencing a tough recruiting market, labor shortages, have less time to properly onboard and train new employees, or are still using disparate, legacy systems and manual tracking.
GUARDIAN RFID will be hosting a reveal of Command Cloud at Vision22, an invitation-only web event exclusively for corrections, law enforcement and media being held on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, at 11 a.m.
CDT. To request an invitation, go to https://guardianrfid.com/event approval. All registrants will be screened.
About GUARDIAN RFID
GUARDIAN RFID is a public safety technology company whose mission is to protect America’s Thin Gray Line: the 480,000 correctional officers protecting our nation’s jails and prisons. We help officers better execute the care, custody and control mission-set through modern cloud, mobile, RFID and AI technologies that enable real-time situational awareness. Learn more at guardianrfid.com or connect with us across our social media channels: YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.