Imagine a World Where Data is Shared Safely

<div>As first responders utilize more advanced communications technology, there are opportunities to share data amongst public safety agencies and help to inform decision-making while increasing safety.Imagine a world where datasets were shared amongst organizations freely because the data is safe and sanitized from personal or private information. If public safety agencies operated in this environment of de-identified datasets, would that translate into faster response time, better incident predictions and saving more lives? PSCR is evaluating the use of a mathematical technique called Differential Privacy to better understand the problem of de-identifying datasets by removing personally identifiable information (PII) without risk of re-identifying the personal data. It is a rapidly growing field in computer science and being explored by NIST PSCR for use in public safety operations and the research community at-large.<br></div>