![[PRO Tips] Use the BCG matrix to help you analyze the current situation, product positioning, and formulate strategies](https://i.scdn.co/image/ab6765630000ba8a165b48c48c4321b36a1df7b9?#)
![[Business Talk] BYD's Hiring Standards: A Reflection of China's Competitive Job Market](https://i.scdn.co/image/ab6765630000ba8a1a1e0af3aefae3a685793e7c?#)
![[PRO Tips] What is ESG? How is it different from CSR and SDGs? 3 keywords that companies and investors should know](https://i.scdn.co/image/ab6765630000ba8a76dbe129993a62e85226c2b4?#)
![[Business Talk] Elon Musk](https://i.scdn.co/image/ab6765630000ba8ac91eb094519def31d2b67898?#)
Embedding secure generative AI in mission-critical public safety applications
This post shows how Mark43 uses Amazon Q Business to create a secure, generative AI-powered assistant that drives operational efficiency and improves community service. We explain how they embedded Amazon Q Business web experience in their web application with low code, so they could focus on creating a rich AI experience for their customers.
This post is co-written with Larry Zorio from Mark43.
Public safety organizations face the challenge of accessing and analyzing vast amounts of data quickly while maintaining strict security protocols. First responders need immediate access to relevant data across multiple systems, while command staff require rapid insights for operational decisions. Mission-critical public safety applications require the highest levels of security and reliability when implementing technology capabilities. Mark43, a public safety technology company, recognized this challenge and embedded generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into their application using Amazon Q Business to transform how law enforcement agencies interact with their mission-critical applications. By embedding advanced AI into their cloud-native platform, Mark43 enables officers to receive instant answers to natural language queries and automated case report summaries, reducing administrative time from minutes to seconds. This solution demonstrates how generative AI can enhance public safety operations while allowing officers to focus more time on serving their communities.
This post shows how Mark43 uses Amazon Q Business to create a secure, generative AI-powered assistant that drives operational efficiency and improves community service. We explain how they embedded Amazon Q Business web experience in their web application with low code, so they could focus on creating a rich AI experience for their customers.
Mark43’s public safety solution built on the AWS Cloud
Mark43 offers a cloud-native Public Safety Platform with powerful computer-aided dispatch (CAD), records management system (RMS), and analytics solutions, positioning agencies at the forefront of public safety technology. These solutions make sure public safety agencies have access to the essential tools and data they need to protect and serve their communities effectively. By using purpose-built Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services and modern software architecture, Mark43 delivers an intuitive, user-friendly experience that empowers both frontline personnel and command staff. The solution’s advanced analytical capabilities provide real-time insights to support data-driven decision making and enhance operational efficiency. Mark43 has built a robust and resilient microservices architecture using a combination of serverless technologies, such as AWS Lambda, AWS Fargate, and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). They use event-driven architectures, real-time processing, and purpose-built AWS services for hosting data and running analytics. This, combined with integrated AI capabilities, positions Mark43 to drive innovation in the industry. With its Open API architecture built on AWS and 100+ integrations, Mark43 connects to the applications and data sources agencies rely on for unmatched insights, situational awareness and decision support. This modern data foundation built on AWS allows agencies to leverage the latest technologies and AI models, keeping pace with the evolving technology landscape.
Opportunity for innovation with generative AI
Agency stakeholders have mission-critical roles that demand significant time and administrative interactions with core solutions. With a cloud native Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management System (RMS), Mark43 was able to bring the same modern solutions that have long infiltrated other industries to make police forces more efficient, replacing legacy systems. Now, Mark43 values the opportunity to leverage AI to support the next evolution of innovative technology to drive efficiencies, enhance situational awareness, and support better public safety outcomes.
Leading agencies are embracing AI by setting high standards for data integrity and security, implementing a central strategy to prevent unauthorized use of consumer AI tools, and ensuring a human-in-the-loop approach. Meanwhile, value-add AI tools should seamlessly integrate with existing workflows and applications to prevent sprawl to yet more tools adding unwanted complexity. Mark43 and AWS worked backwards from these requirements to bring secure, easy-to-use, and valuable AI to public safety.
AWS collaborated with Mark43 to embed a frictionless AI assistant directly into their core products, CAD and RMS, for first responders and command staff. Together, we harnessed the power of AI into a secure, familiar, existing workflow with a low barrier to entry for adoption across the user base. The assistant enables first responders to search information, receive summaries, and complete tasks based on their authorized data access within Mark43’s systems, reducing the time needed to capture high value insights.
In just a few weeks, Mark43 deployed an Amazon Q Business application, integrated their data sources using Amazon Q Business built-in data connectors, embedded the Amazon Q Business application into their native app, tested and tuned responses to prompts, and completed a successful beta version of the assistant with their to end users. Figure 1 depicts the overall architecture of Mark43’s application using Amazon Q Business.
Mark43’s solution uses the Amazon Q Business built-in data connectors to unite information from various enterprise applications, document repositories, chat applications, and knowledge management systems. The implementation draws data from objects stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) in addition to structured records stored in Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). Amazon Q Business automatically uses the data from these sources as context to answer prompts from users of the AI assistant without requiring Mark43 to build and maintain a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) pipeline.
Amazon Q Business provides a chat interface web experience with a web address hosted by AWS. To embed the Amazon Q Business web experience in Mark43’s web application, Mark43 first allowlisted their web application domain using the Amazon Q Business console. Then, Mark43 added an inline frame (iframe) HTML component to their web application with the src attribute set to the web address of the Amazon Q Business web experience. For example, . This integration requires a small amount of development effort to create a seamless experience for Mark43 end users.
Security remains paramount in the implementation. Amazon Q Business integrates with Mark43’s existing identity and access management protocols, making sure that users can only access information to which they’re authorized. If a user doesn’t have access to the data outside of Amazon Q Business, then they cannot access the data within Amazon Q Business. The AI assistant respects the same data access restrictions that apply to users in their normal workflow. With Amazon Q Business administrative controls and guardrails, Mark43 administrators can block specific topics and filter both questions and answers using keywords, verifying that responses align with public safety agency guidelines and protocols.
Mark43 is committed to the responsible use of AI. We believe in transparency, informing our users that they’re interacting with an AI solution. We strongly recommend human-in-the-loop review for critical decisions. Importantly, our AI assistant’s responses are limited to authorized data sources only, not drawing from general Large Language Model (LLM) knowledge. Additionally, we’ve implemented Amazon Q’s guardrails to filter undesirable topics, further enhancing the safety and reliability of our AI-driven solutions.
“Mark43 is committed to empowering communities and governments with a modern public safety solution that elevates both safety and quality of life. When we sought a seamless way to integrate AI-powered search and summarization, Amazon Q Business proved the ideal solution.
We added Amazon Q Business into our solution, reaffirming our dedication to equipping agencies with resilient, dependable and powerful technology. Amazon Q’s precision in extracting insights from complex data sources provides law enforcement with immediate access to information, reducing administrative burden from minutes to seconds. By adding Amazon Q into our portfolio of AWS services, we continue to deliver an efficient, intuitive user experience which enables officers to stay focused on serving their communities but also empowers command staff to quickly interpret data and share insights with stakeholders, supporting real-time situational awareness and operational efficiency,”
– Bob Hughes, CEO Mark43, GovTech Provider of Public Safety Solutions.
Mark43 customer feedback
Public Safety agencies are excited about the potential for AI-powered search to enhance investigations, drive real-time decision support, and increase situational awareness. At International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference in Boston in Oct 2024, one agency who viewed a demo described it as a “game-changer,” while another agency recognized the value of AI capabilities to make officer training programs more efficient. Agency stakeholders noted that AI-powered search will democratize insights across the agency, allowing them to spend more time on higher-value work, instead of answering basic questions.
Conclusion
In this post, we showed you how Mark43 embedded Amazon Q Business web experience into their public safety solution to transform how law enforcement agencies interact with mission-critical applications. Through this integration, Mark43 demonstrated how AI can reduce administrative tasks from minutes to seconds while maintaining the high levels of security required for law enforcement operations.
Looking ahead, Mark43 plans to expand their Amazon Q Business integration with a focus on continuous improvements to the user experience. Mark43 will continue to empower law enforcement with the most advanced, resilient, and user-friendly public safety technology powered by Amazon Q Business and other AWS AI services.
Visit the Amazon Q Business User Guide to learn more about how to embed generative AI into your applications. Request a demo with Mark43 and learn how your agency can benefit from Amazon Q Business in public safety software.
About the authors
Lawrence Zorio III serves as the Chief Information Security Officer at Mark43, where he leads a team of cybersecurity professionals dedicated to safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) of enterprise and customer data, assets, networks, and products. His leadership ensures Mark43’s security strategy aligns with the unique requirements of public safety agencies worldwide. With over 20 years of global cybersecurity experience across the Public Safety, Finance, Healthcare, and Technology sectors, Zorio is a recognized leader in the field. He chairs the Integrated Justice Information System (IJIS) Cybersecurity Working Group, where he helps develop standards, best practices, and recommendations aimed at strengthening cybersecurity defenses against rising cyber threats. Zorio also serves as an advisor to universities and emerging technology firms. Zorio holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a Master of Science in Innovation from Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business. He has been featured in various news publications, authored multiple security-focused white papers, and is a frequent speaker at industry events.
Ritesh Shah is a Senior Generative AI Specialist at AWS. He partners with customers like Mark43 to drive AI adoption, resulting in millions of dollars in top and bottom line impact for these customers. Outside work, Ritesh tries to be a dad to his AWSome daughter. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Prajwal Shetty is a GovTech Solutions Architect at AWS and collaborates with Justice and Public Safety (JPS) customers like Mark43. He designs purpose-driven solutions that foster an efficient and secure society, enabling organizations to better serve their communities through innovative technology. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Garrett Kopeski is an Enterprise GovTech Senior Account Manager at AWS responsible for the business relationship with Justice and Public Safety partners such as Mark43. Garrett collaborates with his customers’ Executive Leadership Teams to connect their business objectives with AWS powered initiatives and projects. Outside work, Garrett pursues physical fitness challenges when he’s not chasing his energetic 2-year-old son. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Bobby Williams is a Senior Solutions Architect at AWS. He has decades of experience designing, building, and supporting enterprise software solutions that scale globally. He works on solutions across industry verticals and horizontals and is driven to create a delightful experience for every customer.
