Accelerating Response Times for the Southern Regional Response Group Using Intrepid Networks Response

Intrepid is built on AWS and is a member of the inaugural AWS GovTech Accelerator, a program supporting GovTech startups as they develop innovative solutions for justice and public safety agencies to better serve their communities. The company began building Intrepid Response in 2011 on AWS infrastructure.

Based in the southern Dallas-area metroplex, the SRRG is one of Texas’s largest regional tactical programs. Individual cities don’t have the budgets or resources to fund SWAT teams, so the SRRG formed to provide emergency services across the region—about 300 square miles in total.

However, the SRRG’s previous tool was too slow to send notifications or make phone calls regarding emergency situations. In one example, the notification was delayed by as much as 30 minutes—far too long in rapidly evolving situations that need up-to-the-minute information. The group realized that Intrepid Response offered the features and reliability it needed and began using it in 2021. “As a commander, I can easily pull up Intrepid Response, add the information I need, and send it reliably to the team,” says Lieutenant Mike Lewis, assistant commander of the SRRG Special Response Team. “It sends a text message and an email and pushes critical notifications, overriding do not disturb or vibrate settings.”

Intrepid simplifies and streamlines coordination with several modules that provide different sets of capabilities. Groups can purchase modules based on their specific needs. The SRRG started by using the Activate module, which focuses on emergency notifications and mobilization tools. During an emergency, the commander can quickly notify and assemble responders and equipment on the dashboard. Then, within seconds, they can see on the dashboard exactly who’s responding to a call and who’s unavailable. “Calling dispatch is one less thing I have to worry about in the middle of spinning up a SWAT team,” says Lewis.

Using Intrepid Response, the SRRG has significantly accelerated response notifications. “Our response times have absolutely gotten lower,” says Lewis. “The previous system could take 20–30 minutes to send a notification, so we’d have a massive delay.” Intrepid Response is nearly instantaneous. When it sends a notification, the information includes a link to the phone’s maps application. It’s automatically filled in, so users save a few seconds of response time instead of having to type or search for a location.

The SRRG has added additional modules, including Locate, which provides the live location of all team members, and Connect, which it uses to securely share digital content. With Locate, when a team member accepts a call, the commander can see their location and progress within 10–15 seconds. When an operator accepts a call, they instantly get the details of what it is, and Intrepid automatically turns on the GPS in their phone so that the commander can see their location.

Intrepid continues to improve its solution by building new features on AWS. It’s using a range of AWS services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), which provides secure and resizable compute capacity for virtually any workload. It’s also storing important data using Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), a collection of managed services that makes it simple to set up, operate, and scale databases in the cloud.

Although Intrepid offers a range of capabilities, the tool also makes it simple to access only what’s immediately necessary. The SRRG can separate communication into channels while still messaging the entire team when necessary. “In emergency situations, it’s an absolute game changer,” says Kacey Green, sales director at Intrepid. Having this high visibility into the status and positions of all the agents who receive a call greatly reduces back-and-forth radio communications. “We get the immediate response of how people are responding to our call, and it’s highly effective,” says Lewis. “It reduces a lot of chatter.”

To maximize reliability, Intrepid uses Amazon CloudWatch, which monitors resources and applications on AWS, on premises, and on other clouds. The company also uses Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), a managed service that runs Kubernetes in the AWS Cloud and on-premises data centers, to manage containers for its services.

In one example of an emergency situation, the SRRG provided backup to several city police officers. “We received information from a police dispatcher and pushed an alert within 30 seconds,” says Lewis. “We knew exactly who was coming and coordinated resources, such as the armored vehicle, while responding to this rapidly evolving incident. Intrepid simplifies our logistics and makes