Police officers, firefighters, search and rescue teams – all emergency service responders must anticipate and assess different threats when performing their duties. Frequently, they are forced to put their own lives at risk to protect others.
Wearable technology, ranging from biometric heart monitors to chemical detection units, can help responders understand the full range of potential threats of any given scenario while equipping them to better manage and overcome any form of risk they face in the line of duty.
While the technological advancement of equipment has always been at the heart of improving emergency responders’ safety and effectiveness, wearables are a relative ‘newcomer’. Regardless, procurers are eager to factor in their growing capabilities when deciding how best to resource, outfit and support their teams.
Leading wearable segments that are changing the world of emergence response
Real-time health monitoring: Emergency responders are constantly engaging in scenarios that place their minds and bodies under significant strain. Last year, the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released findings that 52% of all firefighters who died in 2023 did so due to overexertion and strain causing sudden cardiac arrest. Real-time health monitors, when embedded into responders’ tactical gear, can provide life-saving warnings in the form of haptic feedback or audible alerts.
Location Tracking: While even the average smartphone has GPS tracking, emergency responders need far more accurate location-tracking capabilities to coordinate their deployments. Police and firefighters are often countering threats in dense, complex urban environments with multi-level buildings, making pinpoint accuracy a necessity for supporting teammates quickly and effectively. Advanced location trackers, incorporated either into PPE or a tactical harness, are becoming a must-have wearable for elite teams.
Hazard Detection: Smoke, dangerous chemicals, seismic conditions, even tripping risks – the expanding range of wearable devices dedicated to hazard detection gives their wearers greater operational awareness while vastly improving their personal safety. From smartwatches to exoskeletons, wearables can pre-emptively assess environmental conditions, warning their wearer of any threats while also sending distress signals to supervisors or other emergency responders when the worst occurs and the wearer is in danger.
Data Collection: All organisations must adapt their methodologies to fit the changing times and technologies, and emergency responders are no different. Like with any commercial company, data is the fuel of innovation, and capturing operational data is therefore essential for assessing current strategies while enabling future improvements. Wearables (attached to field units) capable of collecting and feeding back audio, video, comms, environmental and other forms of metadata can provide the basis for systemic organisational improvements.
Priorities for effective integration of wearables
The type, quality, specifications and capabilities of wearables is expanding dramatically. While it’s difficult to accurately assess the specific market size of wearables being used by emergency responders (due to each country having markedly different service compositions), the broader global market reached $61 billion in 2022 and is predicted to enjoy a CAGR of 14.3% between now and 2030.
With such an array of options, individual police forces, firefighter departments and other emergency services need to maintain a clear strategic overview when procuring wearables for their teams. Any provider must be able to satisfy the following criteria to ensure optimal integration and long-term effectiveness of their wearables.
Intelligent, needs-based design: Technological sophistication is not a substitute for situational relevance. In other words, the wearable doesn’t necessarily have to be fancy; it simply has to work well for the task at hand. Before procuring and deploying a wearable solution, connect the provider with the team members who will be the end users. Ensure that the technology meets and satisfies the actual needs of the team in the field.
Change resistance management: Emergency responders rely greatly on their own personal skills and the support of their teammates. Some cultures (workplace and national/ethnic) can produce tightly knitted teams that enjoy high levels of cohesion but also strategic inflexibility and a more general resistance to change. Given that they face life-or-death situations on a regular basis, emergency responders may be hesitant to trust new technologies and tactics over ‘tried and true’ methods. Managing and overcoming such change resistance means working with responders, guiding them through the capabilities of the wearables and ensuring that the solution can be easily integrated into their training routines to familiarise them before they tackle a real-life emergency.
Interoperability: While emergency responders are invariably resourceful and capable of independent operations, the biggest disasters often call for inter-service collaboration. Ideally, the technological capabilities of wearables should allow for an appropriate level of interoperability between different services. For example, if location-tracking wearables used by a firefighting team can share their real-time data with police and paramedic units, this could boost the overall operational awareness of all services involved, allowing for a more coordinated response.
Wearables will prevent loss of life
Emergency responders are among the best trained, motivated and most resourceful professionals in the world. However, even personal heroism is not always enough to overcome all potential threats.
Wearables represent a new vista of tactical and operational capabilities that can give such individuals the tools they need to better assess and respond to any emergency scenario. With greater awareness of their environment, changing circumstances and their teammates’ position, they will be able to make better and more informed decisions on how they proceed.
Such advantages will save lives, both among emergency service personnel and the wider public they are sworn to protect.