Seamless collaboration is critical in public safety, especially in places like Anoka County, Minnesota, where a single incident may require coordinated action from multiple law enforcement agencies. For Lieutenant Nick Steiger, a police officer with the city of Fridley, enhancing that coordination has become a mission. His goal is a countywide deployment of Intrepid Response, a frontline public safety mission support solution that enables communication, collaboration and coordination among special units and across agencies.
Mobilizing a field force
“Anoka County as a whole has always worked well together across jurisdictions,” said Steiger. For decades, Anoka County law enforcement agencies serving a mix of suburban and rural communities have maintained strong bonds and shared resources. Bordering on the northern end of Minneapolis, challenges during the George Floyd-era protests revealed the need for better crowd and field management.
“If you look historically at the management of field operations for mobile field forces in Minneapolis, the biggest challenge has been managing personnel in the field,” Steiger recounted. “They couldn’t get information down to officers in the field, to commanders in the field, sergeants in the field, to give them operation plans. There was just a big void in that area.”
Steiger saw the challenges of managing large-scale deployments. Communication gaps, outdated CAD capabilities and a lack of real-time location tracking hampered officer safety and operational effectiveness. Realizing commanders needed a better way to push information to officers in the field, Steiger proposed demoing Intrepid Response for Anoka County’s mutual aid mobile field force team, North Command Mobile Field Force (NCMFF), consisting of officers from 11 police agencies.
“We need to mobilize up to 130 to 150 people at once for the mobile field force team. Phone trees, paging, signal apps – none of that stuff’s going to work,” said Steiger. What they needed was a more robust solution that would give them a common operating picture and an efficient way to activate NCMFF officers.
“We knew we needed a solution but weren’t sure what was out there. We started discussing with neighboring counties that have mobile field force teams, and they were using Intrepid Response,” said Steiger.
Implementing Intrepid Response
Steiger’s team selected Intrepid Response to overcome their challenges. The solution enhances officer safety and efficiency by supplementing their existing systems with new capabilities: live GPS visibility, encrypted group communication, easy deployment of operation plans and the ability to mark maps dynamically.
“We actually ended up getting the app for the mobile field force team at about the same time another regional team was being developed and going into action, involving members from all different agencies,” said Steiger.
In addition to regional teams, an investigative task force wanted to participate in the demonstration.“Everybody started seeing the benefits of the program and kind of led us to where we’re at now,” he added. Today, Intrepid Response is being used across Anoka County for a wide range of operations.
Real-time GPS visibility
Steiger’s favorite Intrepid Response feature is the Locate module, which live maps personnel and tagged assets in real time. “I like the ability to be able to see where staff is because it’s not where they ought to be, it’s where they actually are at the time,” he said.
When a patrol sergeant and a K-9 track a suspect across several backyards at 2 a.m., it’s easy for an officer to lose track of where they are. “Instead of us getting on the radio trying to figure out who’s where, we get immediate feedback to know the locations of the K-9 handler and the cover officer. We have real-time visibility of who’s on scene and who can follow up,” said Steiger.
One recent situation involved a foot chase through a 200-acre park. Officers lost sight of a colleague during the pursuit. A quick GPS ping via Intrepid revealed her location in real time, guiding backup directly to her. “That officer probably felt a lot better knowing we could find her,” Steiger said. In the case of a missing person, command staff can also coordinate search perimeters by drawing shapes and dropping markers on a map to indicate search zones and landmarks.
Reducing radio chatter and confusion
Another valuable module is Connect, a secure messaging app that helps to reduce radio traffic. “It’s silent, and everybody has the same information, so we’re not playing telephone,” said Steiger. “The mobile field force operators on the line get the same information as the commander or the field commander is getting. So everything is well documented, clear and concise.”
Preplanning incident response
Intrepid also allows for proactive planning for situations like park takeovers. Using the Locate function, Steiger and his team have premapped high-risk parks with evacuation routes and rally points. If a critical event occurs, for instance, officers know exactly where to go and what to do.
“There are so many things you can do with Intrepid to plan for unforeseen events so you’ve got a little level of comfort when you walk into an unplanned situation,” he said.
Identifying suspects
Steiger gives a hypothetical example of how Connect can help identify a suspect: “Say we have an officer that goes to a store for a shoplifting report that turns into a foot chase. An officer on the scene can snap a picture off the CCTV video and disseminate it to everybody on the scene so there’s no disputing who the suspect is. Instead of just a general description, now we’ve got a picture in the hand of every single officer on the scene for that event, so it helps us be more definitive when we’re trying to narrow down suspects.”
Backup when systems fail
Intrepid also fills gaps left by legacy systems. If a CAD goes down, dispatchers can activate response teams, assign calls, track officers and even download full transcripts of the event afterward. “It’s a built-in redundancy we never had before,” Steiger said.
One of the unexpected benefits has been the partnership with Intrepid’s team.
“We’re very happy with their customer service,” Steiger said. “They take feedback really well and listen to their customers. Any support we need they get on top of it right away.”
Looking forward
Steiger is working to get Intrepid in the hands of every officer in Anoka County.
What began as a solution for tactical teams is transforming everyday policing. “It’s the actual full use of it on patrol that I think is going make the biggest difference for officers,” said Steiger. “It’s on the street when you have no expectation of what’s going to occur 10 minutes from now. Chaos could break out, and I want officers to be safe in those situations and feel comfortable on the street. I want to know where they’re at when an event unfolds and their partners to help them if they need help.”
To learn more about how Intrepid Networks can enhance your agency’s situational awareness communication and coordination capabilities, visit Intrepid Networks to schedule a demo or get a free trial.
