Technologies that once sounded futuristic — drones that launch on a 911 call, body-worn cameras that double as AI voice assistants, dashboards that stream school cameras and panic alerts into dispatch — are already reshaping day-to-day policing.
Those innovations were front and center at Motorola Solutions Summit 2025, the company’s annual user conference in Grapevine, Texas. Policing Matters podcast host Jim Dudley recorded six conversations with some of the chiefs, officers, technologists and cyber analysts in attendance. Their message: technology is no longer an add-on; it’s the engine driving faster response, lighter paperwork and tougher cyber defenses.
Drones and dashboards put eyes on a scene
Several guests described trading radio-only response for a live, multi-sensor picture that begins the moment a 911 call drops:
- How Protected Places programs improve real-time emergency response: Mike Armitage, who runs Calhoun County, Michigan’s consolidated dispatch, said his center now sees school cameras, panic-button alerts, CAD data and live body-cam streams in one interface. “Our telecommunicators don’t have time to log into six systems during an emergency. This brings everything to a single click.” Retired Detroit assistant chief Lucinda Stair recalled launching Project Green Light in 2016 with just eight gas stations. Detroit now has more than 1,000 participating businesses, proof, she said, that public trust grows when the community can watch wins play out in real time.
- Getting started with Drone as a First Responder: Collier County, Florida, launches a rooftop drone on high-priority calls. Technical manager Billy Gessner said the craft reaches 400 feet within seconds, giving deputies a “10,000-foot view” that guided them through backyards during a burglary pursuit and prevented a dangerous vehicle pursuit. Retired N.C. Highway Patrol Lt. Colonel Alan Melvin added that airborne overwatch lets incident commanders call off code-three responses when footage shows no immediate threat—efficiency that also improves officer safety.
- Bringing 911 intelligence into the Real Time Crime Center: Interim Chief Colby Brandt said Glendale, Arizona’s operators now read live 911 transcripts roughly a minute before a dispatcher keys the mic. That head start let staff swing traffic cameras toward an armed-robbery suspect, track the getaway car across multiple intersections, relay the plate and coordinate a safe felony stop that ended with three firearms recovered.
Mobile workflows — and AI — shrink paperwork
Speakers stressed that younger recruits expect to type, search and file on handheld devices:
- A mobile-first approach to modern policing: LAPD information-systems manager Monique Turner said Chief John McMahon asked a blunt question five years ago: “If citizens can file taxes on a phone, why can’t an officer take a report?” Today field-interview cards flow from handset to records system in minutes, not the 30-to-60-day delay that once frustrated detectives. Turner added that call-holding times at LAPD fell from roughly three minutes to eight seconds after the department adopted an AI-assisted 911 system that auto-populates location fields and triggers instant text callbacks.
- The convergence of voice, video and AI: James Felton of Peel Regional Police in Ontario tested the new Motorola SVX unit, which merges a shoulder mic and body-worn camera. Officers can dictate plate queries and narratives and let on-board AI transcribe, tag and upload the file before the first unit clears. Motorola software manager Jason Hutchkins noted the same cloud platform auto-redacts video for disclosure, returning hours of clerical time to investigators.
| WATCH ALL THE EPISODES: Policing Matters at Motorola Solutions Summit 2025
Cyber defense becomes a shared mission
The harshest statistics came from the cyber front. Jay Kaine, director of the Public Safety Threat Alliance (PSTA), told Dudley that ransomware crews hit 324 public safety entities worldwide last year and shut down 25 completely — two of them P25 radio networks. “Attackers see that availability is life-and-death and use that pressure in negotiations,” he warned.
- Combatting the cyber threat with the Public Safety Threat Alliance: William DeCoste, who manages Virginia’s statewide STARS radio system, joined PSTA after realising that modern consoles and mobile apps extend the network’s attack surface. The alliance sends daily threat feeds and quarterly tabletop drills; a recent phishing assessment caught a trooper who clicked a fake invoice. “We made him retake cyber-awareness the same day,” Dossett said, adding that lessons are pushed to local sheriffs so smaller agencies patch before trouble strikes. Kaine emphasised that PSTA membership is free and open to non-Motorola customers: “Rural departments deserve the same early warnings as big cities.” The group distributes indicators of compromise, patch advisories and response playbooks that help communications teams rehearse who shuts servers, who seeks mutual aid and who briefs the media when CAD screens go dark.
Looking ahead
Speakers expect next year’s budget talks to focus on two upgrades: AI assistants that auto-summarise video evidence and expanded camera-sharing pacts that knit city, school and private feeds into a common map. Agencies that standardise their data flow now, test drones against real call types and rehearse cyber response alongside active-shooter drills will move fastest when the next technology wave hits.
Summit 2025’s lesson is clear: innovations on show in Grapevine are not distant prototypes — they are field-tested tools ready to be copied at the next shift change.
| WATCH: Discover how the LAPD is transforming field work with a mobile-first approach that reduces paperwork and puts officers back in the community, faster.
