IBM Helps the Biggest City in the Philippines Transform to a Smart City

Public safety is a government responsibility that is tough to oversee as it covers vast areas of concern such as traffic, crime, and other emergencies. But today, as the tech industry works together to create smarter cities, taking charge of such aspects can now be more manageable. Davao City, the biggest city in the Philippines, is the first in the country to use technology in answering its issues on public safety. There is no doubt that keeping an eye on a city that spans over 2,400 square kilometers and has over one million in population can be demanding. So the local government tapped IBM Philippines on a PHP 128 million ($3 million) project to enhance their public service initiatives. The agreement was for IBM to provide the Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) platform that will support its existing Public Safety and Security Command Center (PSSCC). And after a year of implementation, the Davao City government and IBM have announced that the IOC is now operational. Unified Platform The IOC now provides the PSSCC a centralized dashboard view that allows the authorized government bodies (including multiple local government agencies such as police, fire, and anti-terrorism task force) to use analytics software and monitor events and operations in real-time. Today, the solution answers the city’s four main pillars of public safety which are: crime prevention, emergency response, threat prevention and response, and traffic management. This is made possible by the varied tools that IBM has provided such as video analytics software, multi-channel unified communication (that includes an early-warning system for key risk indicators), and GPS location tracking.

Through the live feeds from CCTVs and the unified communication tools, respective departments will be alerted of emergency in specific locations (like if there’s fire, bomb threat, etc.). This now will result in faster response times for the department in-charge of the situation. According to Davao City mayor Sara Duterte, this move is part of their vision to build a safer city that will help the city become a center of growth. This makes sense as it is considered the business capital of the southern region. This kind of solution is a first in the Philippines, but IBM has already collaborated with over 2,000 cities worldwide for the same implementation.
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