At the Worldwide Public Safety Symposium, Microsoft announced two ways the company is helping governments increase multiagency operational effectiveness, reduce costs, and improve collaboration and information sharing to help combat threats to public safety and security.

Introducing software solutions and services designed to help governments respond in real time to threats to public safety, Microsoft launched the Citizen Safety Architecture. The company also announced support of the International Criminal Police Organization’s (INTERPOL) Global Security Initiative (GSI), which addresses international security challenges. Both Citizen Safety Architecture and GSI are designed to improve public safety, reduce crime and bring humanitarian relief to crisis situations demanding collective action across multiple disparate groups.

“Given the direct correlation between the declining economy and the rise of public safety concerns, there is a pressing need for innovative, collaborative and integrated solutions, like Citizen Safety Architecture, that deliver to governments the tools they need to ensure the safety of their citizens,” said Tim Bloechl, managing director for worldwide public safety and national security at Microsoft. “Microsoft and INTERPOL recognize the strong synergies between Citizen Safety Architecture and GSI, and our pledge to develop a long-term relationship with organizations like INTERPOL supports the overall goal of Citizen Safety Architecture.”

Microsoft’s Citizen Safety Architecture equips law enforcement, intelligence agencies and emergency services with a platform that allows access to services and rapid partner solution development. The result is a fast and economical deployment of software and services solutions specifically designed to improve public security and safety. By design, Citizen Safety Architecture is based on familiar, proven Microsoft tools to cost-effectively extend and augment organizations’ existing IT investments. These tools include Microsoft Single View Platform, (SVP), Microsoft FusionX, “Eagle,” Microsoft Intelligence Framework, the Microsoft Incident Response Platform and Global Security Operations Centers (GSOCs).

While the initiatives are independent, the goals of Citizen Safety Architecture and INTERPOL’s GSI are similar: They both create enhanced information-sharing and connectivity frameworks addressing the need to protect citizens both physically and virtually, and address the need to synthesize data from a variety of sources. These common interests, along with today’s ceremonial signing of an agreement that Microsoft will provide its Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) tool free of charge to INTERPOL for international distribution, demonstrate the steps Microsoft and INTERPOL are taking to develop a broader relationship. COFEE is a Microsoft-developed application that uses common digital forensics tools to help officers at the scene of a crime gather volatile evidence of live computer activity that would otherwise be lost in a traditional offline forensic analysis. Through the agreement, COFEE will be distributed to INTERPOL’s participating 187 countries around the world to aid global law enforcement in addressing cybercrime.

Citizen Safety Architecture and GSI are focused on delivering enhanced capabilities for intelligence-gathering and investigation, but Citizen Safety Architecture also delivers emergency response, transportation and border control, physical security, and disaster and crisis management. In addition, it draws upon Microsoft’s collective knowledge and expertise of a growing ecosystem of both international and local partners committed to developing Microsoft-based solutions tailored to public safety needs. By focusing on interoperable solutions that can work well in mixed environments, evolve over time and serve the needs of constituents, Microsoft’s Citizen Safety Architecture is helping governments face global security challenges.

Solutions addressing critical infrastructure protection and major event management will be added to Citizen Safety Architecture later this year.