DHS Unveils Successful Smart City Technology Pilot

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported on January 17 that its Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate had completed the final integration of a smart city technology pilot in St. Louis as part of a program designed to enhance overall public safety and streamline operations across the city’s departments.

“This final rollout event, which included a series of tabletop exercises and operational scenarios, demonstrated how these technologies could be leveraged by first responders, emergency managers and other city officials in real-life events, such as floods, fires or earthquakes,” the DHS indicated.

The directorate, working with the city, also harnessed the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the T-REX Innovation Center (T-REX)— a nonprofit technology innovation and entrepreneur development center in Downtown St. Louis—to demonstrate smart city solutions.

In addition, the parties relied on Smart City Interoperability Reference Architecture (SCIRA) to support interoperability across various technologies, including commercial proprietary Internet of Things public safety sensors. By validating the SCIRA architecture through the pilot, officials can recommend its adoption to other smart city efforts.

"With this experiment, and by bringing in a variety of city, federal and other stakeholders, we are aiming to get cities to prioritize their procurement and have a clear vision of their immediate operational needs and desired benefits in a realistic manner,” said Norman Speicher, DHS S&T program manager.

"The City of St. Louis is proud to partner with DHS S&T, OGC and T-REX on this very important smart city effort,” said St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson. “Smart city technologies deliver 21st century services to its residents, provide for their public safety, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of all city services."

DHS will be posting follow up information on the SCIRA pilot on the S&T website, the agency said.