One of the biggest priorities for law enforcement leaders is to keep their officers – and the citizens they protect – safe. This requires a mobile platform that ensures the compliance and security of devices, as well as the security of the sensitive data accessed by officers.

We recently connected with several leaders in law enforcement to find out how their agencies are using BlackBerry solutions to help increase productivity, security and collaboration. Here’s what they had to say about their experiences:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Visit www.upgrademyforce.com to learn more about the BlackBerry portfolio of solutions for law enforcement.

Do you work for a law enforcement agency that uses BlackBerry solutions? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.

Because government agencies deal with some of the most confidential information in the world, IT leaders in the government sector face unique challenges with data protection, device management and security accreditations. Mobile solutions for government must improve productivity without compromising security requirements.

To find out more about how government agencies are using BlackBerry solutions, we spoke with several government IT leaders. Here’s what they had to say about their experiences with BlackBerry services and products like the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Visit www.upgrademyagency.com to learn more about how BlackBerry can provide your government agency with a complete solution for mobile security, manageability, productivity and collaboration. And stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on BlackBerry solutions in public safety and law enforcement.

Do you work for a government agency that uses BlackBerry solutions? Tell us about a mobility challenge that BlackBerry has helped you resolve.

I’ve been blogging for the past few weeks about BlackBerry® products and their impact on the public sector, and today I wanted to focus on accessibility for citizens who may have impairments. Accessibility is an issue everyone deals with as they seek to make their organizations open to a wide array of both employees and customers. Governments take this effort seriously and are leaders in the field — not only from a regulatory perspective, but because their customers are so diverse, and they can’t exclude anyone. With an eye to this leadership in accessibility, many government organizations are using the mobile platform as a key driver to improve the way citizens and staff access public services.

When it comes to making a difference, the BlackBerry platform offers accessibility features that help people communicate more easily and with more choices. The organizations referenced below either assess the value of accessibility technology by testing devices, or deploy accessible technologies to their clients. I thought their stories were interesting, and definitely inspiring.

The State of New Mexico Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (CDHH) decided to give qualifying New Mexico residents BlackBerry smartphones because the devices offer features in one package that they couldn’t get anywhere else. All current BlackBerry smartphones meet or exceed certification requirements by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for hearing aid compatibility.

The BlackBerry solution was also attractive to the agency because it offers versatility in communications. The BlackBerry® Noise-Isolating Headset, for example, is designed to boost sound levels; BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) makes it easier to have instant communications; email and text offer more options for sending a message. The agency chose BlackBerry smartphones because they’re both a business and personal communication tool that can enhance the lives of clients at work and home.

Another organization has a similar point of view. Telecommunications for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI) staff use BlackBerry smartphones because they find that the devices make working much easier. TDI are also called on to recommend the best accessibility technologies to their members, and BlackBerry smartphones are one of the technologies that they recommend.

BlackBerry smartphones stand out for TDI for the same communications-enhancing reasons, but it’s also about the devices’ QWERTY keyboards and how suited they are to typing long messages. They also like that BlackBerry smartphones work with SIPRelay® by Sorrenson Communications and Wireless IP-Relay by Purple® technologies, which support text-based calling. Also, apps such as Twitter® for BlackBerry smartphones and Facebook® for BlackBerry smartphones are important for both social networking and the advocacy efforts of this lobby group.

Apps like Tap to Talk™ for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet offers accessibility features for children. Just tap a picture and the TapToTalk app “speaks”. Each picture can lead to another screen of pictures that can help a non-verbal child communicate.

I really like that Research In Motion® (RIM®) continues to break new ground with accessibility features for the BlackBerry platform. (Be sure to check out the Inside BlackBerry Blog’s post about BlackBerry® Screen Reader as well.)

Do you consider accessibility issues when deploying IT solutions? How do you address these concerns in a cost-effective manner?

In government, this kind of tool can be really effective – especially for people who do inspections for large organizations. Getting reports that are time and location -stamped with GPS coordinates helps decision-makers get a big picture view of the services they manage. It’s a vast improvement over having to wade through mountains of spreadsheets.

The US National Weather Service is a good example of a service that uses the Freeance Mobile app with BlackBerry smartphones. They collect data on storms and tornadoes, for use by scientists, academics, insurance companies and the public. Storm damage can be spread out over many miles, and inspectors use to have to take manual GPS readings and write them down. Can you imagine having to hand-map those coordinates to get a real picture of the disaster area?

But with the Freeance Mobile app on their BlackBerry smartphones, all the data collected at a site is now automatically stamped with GPS coordinates and sent to the back-end database. Back at the US National Weather Service headquarters, this data is mapped so decision-makers can get a quick, easy-to-understand view of how a storm affected the surrounding area.

For Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI), collecting GIS information using a BlackBerry smartphone with the Freeance Mobile app is about efficiency. NSPI monitors the electrical grid for customers in Nova Scotia, Canada. This means that field service reps must travel long distances between power stations and lines and having to come back to an office at the end of the day to upload information was far too time consuming. So when they started using BlackBerry smartphones with the Freeance Mobile app to automatically report the data collected with GPS coordinates, their inspectors found that they saved travel time. NSPI also found it gained accurate information about the health of the power grid, so they could better predict outages and deploy crews.

For the Canadian City of Vaughan, GPS mapping with the BlackBerry smartphone and Freeance Mobile app is about delivering better customer service. The City of Vaughan sends inspectors to help ensure businesses – such as restaurants, stores and even taxis – are meeting local by-laws. With the Freeance Mobile app, they discovered that seeing dots mapped on a screen enabled them to understand trouble spots better than they could before. A series of inspection reports, mapped together, gave them a unique perspective on areas of the city that weren’t meeting by-laws. Knowing this helped them deal with the issues, often before the public complained.

What makes all these solutions impressive is the volume of information that can be presented on a map without excessive work on the part of the inspector. Since data is already being collected, these BlackBerry solutions show just how easy it is to get more value from the data coming from the field.

Does your organization use GPS-enabled BlackBerry devices? Do you have apps that take advantage of geographic context? Tell us how you’re integrating location into your mobile application strategy.

Police forces around the world have to keep up with technology – the bad guys certainly are! Law enforcement also has to ensure mobile solutions meet stringent security standards – ones that involve extra levels of authentication and encryption that prevent sensitive police records from unauthorized access. And policing is no more immune to budget restrictions than any other level of government, so cost-effectiveness has to be balanced with the real returns of making the mobile investment.

Let me share how accessing police databases while away from police cars is helping to revolutionize three police departments across Canada and the US: The Baltimore Police Department (Baltimore PD) in the US, and Chatham-Kent Police Services and Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) in Canada.

Police departments can leverage BlackBerry® smartphones to access police databases, helping to cost-effectively enhance frontline policing:

• Baltimore PD has 2,000 officers who use InterAct™ PocketCop on BlackBerry smartphones
• WRPS in Canada deployed 300 BlackBerry smartphones with MPANiche
• Chatham-Kent Police Services, also in Canada, built a custom application for 170 officers with their partner Mobile Innovations

What’s interesting about these apps is the obvious benefit of having critical police information in the officer’s hands versus having to go back to a computer in the police cruiser. This means an officer can verify if a suspect has a criminal record and if they match the mugshot. This allows greater efficiency and safety for officers in their daily work. And while we’re talking about safety, all three forces use built-in BlackBerry GPS technology to help pinpoint and map an officer’s location while away from vehicles – just in case they run into trouble while on foot.

Having a way to more securely access police databases like NCIC, MVA and CPIC from a BlackBerry smartphone is a huge improvement over in-car computers and radios – and it’s all done with the kind of security police forces demand. Chatham-Kent Police Services even uses an enhanced BlackBerry security tool like the BlackBerry® Smart Card Reader as well as SafeNet® Smart Card technology to enable multi-factor authentication, which means that the officer must confirm their identity through multiple sources before the information can be accessed.

In some cases, BlackBerry technology may even lower operational costs as compared to outfitting vehicles with hardwired laptops.

When it comes to public safety, BlackBerry is making an obvious impact – for the officers, for IT teams who need to ensure security, and for the communities the police are sworn to protect.

Have you seen a police officer use a BlackBerry smartphone on the job? Share your story.

What strikes me about their work is that many started with the core strengths of the BlackBerry platform for email, security and IT management, but have gone much further in their visions. For example, many have branched out with BlackBerry apps they’ve created or deployed with partners – apps that make doing the business of government so much more efficient with better service to the public and real ROI.

Over the next six weeks, I’m going to share these stories – from policing and public safety to helping the deaf and hard of hearing communities, from making it easier on people who inspect parks, buildings and waterways to informing prime minister’s offices that need to stay on top of the news. We all know today’s governments are cash- and resource-strapped, but also have to meet an increased demand for services. These customers in Colombia, Scotland, California, Baltimore and Canada show exactly why BlackBerry helps them get the job done, and why BlackBerry remains the number one choice of government mobile customers.

Stay tuned for the coming blog posts and find out how BlackBerry is making a difference in governments around the world.

Are you a part of a government office that uses BlackBerry solutions? Tell us how you’ve used mobile technology to make a difference on your staff, your politicians, or your citizens.

Beyond the announcement last month that the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet is the first tablet to be FIPS 140-2 certified for use by U.S. Federal government agencies, it was also announced that the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet won the “Best in Show” award at the 2011 FOSE Conference – the largest Federal government information technology conference in the U.S.! This is a tremendous honor for us, and it further underscores the importance of security to government agencies and how BlackBerry® products rise to the top when compared with other products.

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet also won “Best of FOSE” in the Handheld Devices category.

Over one million government workers use BlackBerry smartphones today in North America. BlackBerry smartphones can be connected to a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet via BlackBerry® Bridge™ technology designed for secure access to government-related information and content which can be viewed on the larger screen of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

If you haven’t taken a look at the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, I encourage you to get your hands on one and let me know what you think!

We have very significant news to share with our government customers – today the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet officially received FIPS 140-2 certification, the first tablet to ever have received this certification. With FIPS 140-2 certification, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet can now be used by the U.S. federal government with confidence, knowing that it meets their policy requirements for securing and protecting sensitive data.

This absolutely underscores the commitment by Research In Motion® (RIM®) to building products that meet stringent security requirements of the US Federal Government.

There are a wide variety of smartphone and tablet products available on the market today, many of which don’t meet the highest level of security standards that government agencies demand. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphones are clear exceptions.

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is a natural extension to the hundreds of thousands of BlackBerry® smartphones that are used in the Federal Government today. With the BlackBerry® Bridge™ application, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet can be paired with a BlackBerry smartphone to provide secure access to information on the larger screen while keeping the data stored safely on the BlackBerry smartphone. Secure network communication is also extended to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in this manner, designed to allow the government to be assured that they can securely access applications and other critical data.

I’m pretty excited about the opportunities that the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet presents for government agencies. Pilot projects to use the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet are already underway across the government and the use case scenarios are impressive. Give me a shout in the comments if you would like to discuss how the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet would fit into your agency or department.

This year will be our ninth year at FOSE (the Federal Office Systems Exposition), the largest Federal government information technology trade show in the United States, and we’ll be providing several unique opportunities for attendees to see how technology and mobile apps are changing the way that government works.

The BlackBerry® PlayBook™ Mobile Tour Truck will be joining us on-site for all three days of FOSE, which is taking place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., July 19-21, 2011.

The BlackBerry PlayBook Mobile Tour Truck (Booth # 650) will give this year’s FOSE attendees the opportunity to see the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet first-hand. Attendees will be presented with an interactive experience showcasing the tablet’s powerful features – from its high resolution display, speed, performance and multi-tasking capabilities to apps, secure pairing with BlackBerry® smartphones via BlackBerry® Bridge™ technology, and high-fidelity web experience with support for Adobe® Flash®, Adobe® Mobile AIR® and HTML5.

Beyond the BlackBerry PlayBook Mobile Tour, there are a couple of breakout sessions I think you’ll want to check out:

1. BlackBerry Education sessions on Wednesday, July 20th from 10-4PM

• “Using the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet in Government”
• “The Consumerization of IT: Managing the Security and Risks of Individual Liable Smartphones”
• “The Apps Every Agency Should Know About”
• “BlackBerry Enterprise Solutions for Federal Government: Today and Tomorrow”
• “Ask the Experts: Talk to an expert about your BlackBerry solution”

2. The Mobile Apps Experience on July 19th at 1:45pm and July 20th at 1:15pm

Finally, don’t forget to visit us at the Recharge Lounge (Booth # 1301) where you can take a break while we charge your BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

If you have questions around applications and deployments, hardware and software, or mobile solutions from field service to emergency responsiveness – we’d love to meet you at FOSE.

See you soon!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Hi! I’m Wes, and I work for Research In Motion® (RIM®) and I’m a BlackBerry® Segment Leader for Public Sector – which means I spend the majority of my time thinking about how mobile solutions can make a difference in government agencies today. Of interest to others in the same area of occupation is this year’s Public Sector Forum at BlackBerry World™, being held on May 5th, 2011. This annual event focuses on best practices in wireless mobility, networking with peers and the future of the BlackBerry solution for the Public Sector.

In particular, there are two breakout sessions I’d like to highlight:

WB22: Public Sector Leaders in Mobility

Meet the finalists of the Public Sector Wireless Achievement Awards in an interactive discussion on managing large-scale BlackBerry deployments, delivering mobile applications, and meeting business needs with mobility. In this session, we’ll cover the following topics: responding to the demand for mobile access to organizational data, deploying mobile applications, scaling deployments from small user groups to an enterprise-scale user population, balancing security needs with user demands and what makes a successful deployment.

For more details, view Session WB22 in the online session catalog.

WB24: Security in Government Roundtable

In this session, the Research In Motion® (RIM®) security group will discuss the current state of wireless security. As smartphones are more frequently used in Public Sector organizations, maintaining appropriate controls while giving employees the flexibility to fully leverage wireless technology is a challenge. This session will cover governance, regulatory concerns, best practices and industry trends that will assist your organization
in managing growth. Join this session to discuss security challenges and how controls in the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server – as well as third party solutions – can help to address these needs.

For more details, view Session WB24 in the online session catalog.

We’ll also be doing a general overview of BlackBerry solutions used in the Public Sector – sharing some insight into wireless trends and how different mobility solutions can help to drive your business needs (Session WB21). Also, the hot topic of Applications at Work in the Public Sector will explore how organizations at the federal, state/provincial and local levels of government are using the BlackBerry solution as a complete mobility platform (Session WB23).

If you’d like to find out more about our public sector offerings, check out the video above for a look at how the Baltimore Police Department is using BlackBerry today.

If you have questions about applications and deployments, hardware and software, and mobile solutions for field service to emergency responsiveness – we’d love to meet you this week at BlackBerry World 2011!  Register now, and we’ll see you soon!