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Technology integration in firehouses for improved response times and safety

0:53:50

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3 min

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Council Member Kevin Riley inquires about the integration of technology in firehouse upgrades to improve response times and firefighter safety. Commissioner Robert Tucker emphasizes the FDNY's focus on technology as a key solution to many challenges.

The FDNY is reviewing and operationalizing existing technology while also exploring new options.
Initiatives include using drones, robots, computer dispatching, and fiber optic communications in firehouses.
The department is open to emerging technologies like AI and is learning from other fire departments and public safety agencies.

Kevin Riley

0:53:50

Thank you, chair.

0:53:51

Good morning, commissioner, and good morning to your team.

0:53:53

Good morning.

0:53:54

I kinda wanna piggyback off my colleague, council member Mamorago, was speaking about technology.

0:54:00

How is technology being integrated into the firehouse upgrades to improve response time and firefighter safety?

Robert Tucker

0:54:08

So I I said it already.

0:54:10

I'll say it again.

0:54:11

I think that technology is the is really the key to to lots of unsolved puzzles within the FDNY.

0:54:22

And I'm extremely focused on not only reviewing, understanding, and operationalizing the existing technology within the department which I would tell you is impressive.

0:54:36

But I would also say that there's a lot of work that needs to be done and I am spending a lot of time working internally with our folks in the Bureau of Technology Services, but also meeting with outside vendors and other fire departments and public safety agencies to see what they're doing that we can learn from.

0:55:02

We don't have to invent the wheel.

0:55:04

We sometimes can just look to our neighbors and other partners.

0:55:08

I sent a delegation of chief officers including the chief of department out to California to meet with the chief of the LA County Fire Department during at the very end of their horrific brushfires and wildland fires that they suffered through to see what technology they were deploying.

0:55:33

We are using drones and robots.

0:55:36

We have computer dispatching.

0:55:42

We have fiber going into every firehouse now.

0:55:45

So we've upped the speed with which we can communicate and every second counts and fiber is making it faster to get messaging from our nine one one's PSACs to the firehouses.

0:56:01

But I'm not done yet.

0:56:03

There've got to be things that we could do to make it better, make it faster.

0:56:10

We are open to reviewing and understanding technology.

0:56:17

We're not afraid of it.

0:56:18

We are embracing things like AI and the future of how AI will impact the FDNY and I think it will impact us.

0:56:31

We're talking about things like encryption in our radios.

0:56:34

So we're really at the cutting edge but we want to even get better.

0:56:40

The deputy mayor's office of public safety hosts a technology committee, meeting where the chief tech officers from various agencies that fall under the deputy mayor, meet regularly to discuss what's going on in their agencies.

0:56:58

So I think we've got some learning, happening internally.

0:57:03

We learn from our sister agencies within the ADAMS administration.

0:57:08

And I think we're spending a lot of time because of my experience in the last twenty five years before I came to the fire department meeting with partners from the biggest tech companies in the world.

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