Public Sector

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is constantly striving to improve safety, and they rely on evolving edge environments to provide officers with the most accurate data about suspects and threats.

To deploy environments quickly and maintain uptime at the edge, the police department relies on HPE ProLiant servers, HPE Integrated Lights Out, and Aruba wireless solutions. Learn how HPE IT solutions help officers stay productive and achieve more with data.

PUTTING DATA IN THE FIELD
Organizations worldwide see the need to equip employees in the field with a new kind of tool: data. It is becoming customary to see workers outside of the office—from repairmen and farmers to engineers and researchers—using tablets to take advantage of real-time information. When it comes to keeping a city safe, officers in the LAPD also see the value of having data at their fingertips.

“We’re no different than many of the field workers you see in the world today,” says Kirk Yamamoto, a senior systems analyst. “The officers want more information.”

Yamamoto works in the project management office of the Information Technology Bureau, which oversees all of the technology and IT infrastructure for the LAPD. Even though officers are not often in a standard office, Yamamoto makes sure they have the tools to do their job in the field.

“The more information on situational awareness that an officer has, the better their work is,” explains Yamamoto. “It helps them understand the people that they’re dealing with, whether there is a mental health issue or a felony warrant.”

As officers sign in from locations like court houses or joint task force bases, they need to access numerous databases to work on their cases. For the Information Technology Bureau, that means expanding edge technologies with solutions from HPE.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
Municipalities were functioning organizations well before the internet boom, and they followed a different trajectory from the private sector in how they adopted technology. They’re challenged with deploying state-of-the-industry solutions in and around old buildings with outdated infrastructure. For the public sector, ease of deployment and management is a top priority.

“The challenge is that we’re not a company that was born on the internet,” says Yamamoto. “So we have a lot of legacy technology that we’re dealing with. We’re in a lot of legacy facilities and some historic facilities.”

For the LAPD, a shift to the edge isn’t a one-time event. The digital transformation is an ongoing process that they face with every project or initiative. They need solutions that can help them manage their current infrastructure while also helping them innovate for future needs.

“We run a shared model where our infrastructure is managed by our central IT agency,” explains Yamamoto.

“Like every government agency, we have limits to what we can fund in that space. That’s why our edge is very fluid, and it continues to evolve.”

To support numerous offices and workspaces across Los Angeles, Yamamoto and his team work with the central IT agency to deploy Aruba wireless networks. The solutions provide an efficient way to deploy a wireless network, even in old buildings. While the bureau works to deploy more mobile options to use in the field, Aruba solutions provide a compliant network to house HPE compute and storage resources at the edge.

EXPANDING TECHNOLOGY MOBILITY FOR OFFICERS
Innovation at the edge is more than just making the most of remote offices and courthouses. It means giving police rapid data retrieval even when they are on the streets. New tools can help them focus on building more proactive practices.

“While I say our edge today may be 8,500 desktops on top of these 90-100 different networks, it’s going to evolve that much more as we start getting more and more devices and information out to the sworn officers on the beat,” shares Yamamoto.

Yamamoto and his team are in the process of deploying 1,200 tablets to officers in the field. It’s the first step in moving the edge past wireless networks in remote offices, and he shares it is a way to add even more flexibility. “Our edge keeps expanding,” he says. “Because it’s not just being wed to a geographic division. It’s much more than that.”

This fleet of mobile devices would not be possible without the help of HPE. Even though there is a strong need for expanding capabilities of cellular networks, a strong edge infrastructure is necessary to support software and management. Until 5G is a more widespread tool, HPE devices in edge environments are the backbone of much of the work of the LAPD.

“HPE is basically the strategic partner as we’re delivering these mobile solutions,” says Yamamoto. “These edge servers today are delivering software patches, software apps. They’re helping with managing those devices that are out there today.”

CONTINUING TO EXPAND THE EDGE
As the LAPD continues to improve their police practices, technology at the edge is a cornerstone for their innovation. HPE solutions help the Information Technology Bureau update legacy infrastructure and expand the edge, continuously supporting their officers in the field. They count on the reliability of HPE to ensure officers always have a way to keep the city safe, from anywhere.

“You want to make sure you deliver a solution that’s going to be reliable,” says Yamamoto.

“That’s where HPE comes to play. They have been a great partner in delivering these types of reliable solutions.”

The LAPD’s IT professionals continue to push the department into the future. As officers have access to more data in the field, they are able to make better decisions. HPE solutions help them continue to evolve, adopting new police practices with better and faster data.

“HPE helps us deliver those solutions in managing the current while it works toward delivering the future for us,” says Yamamoto.

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