Whilst the technology has developed quickly, public safety organisations have been slower to invest compared to other industries. This is due to several reasons:

1. Budget cycles – Often there is no available funding for large capital expenditure projects. This is changing as
new business models are adopted and the drive to invest in technology to act as force multipliers increases
in the backdrop of budget cuts. It can also depend on product life cycles and sunk investment.

2. Difficult to affect business and operational change – The critical nature of the work of public safety agencies
does not allow for downtime for upgrades, new technology deployment or rapid changes to operations.
These are usually slow and incremental.

3. The process for technological transition requires a long-term vision. Often decisions are made by political
appointments who only have short terms, or simply the political will and backing are not there.

4. The cautious nature of investing in new technology that has not been proven. Public safety agencies require
robust and reliable technology solutions and will often wait for proof of concepts. Most are happy to be
followers in technology adoption as opposed to leaders.

However, the market continues to move forward and is at a critical point where pressures and the current environment will force change. Much of the technology has been proven in other industries and has reduced in cost. In addition, if they do not change, then current operating procedures will no longer be fit for purpose as the digital transformation across society creates a new world and new threats.