Over the past two years, SAFEGUARD has achieved important milestones towards delivering its core objectives.
The project began defining its two Pilot Use Cases, with the active involvement of our Law Enforcement Agencies, detailing realistic operational situations. Next, the relevant end-user requirements were consolidated, capturing the needs of the operational stakeholders. Initial input was gathered towards specifying the security requirements, while ongoing legal and ethical work has been conducted to ensure compliance with national and European legislation and regulations, particularly regarding personal data protection, human oversight, and emerging AI-related regulatory frameworks. In parallel, a questionnaire was shared with the Greek public to assess the societal acceptance of the SAFEGUARD solution, while interviews with two experts provided additional insights supporting the project’s societal assessment activities.
To address the challenges that Law Enforcement Agencies face in the protection of public spaces, the SAFEGUARD solution is based on two main frameworks. On one hand, the project developed an initial version of the open-source intelligence gathering and analysis framework, which includes web crawlers for data gathering, multilingual analysis, and threat assessment tools supporting the early identification of potential security and terrorism-related threats, through the correlation of information from multiple SAFEGUARD data sources. On the other hand, the project designed an initial version of the field operations dashboard with enhanced operational capabilities, including visual monitoring and tracking from IoT-enabled cameras and UAVs. In addition, information is delivered directly to the Augmented Reality application, facilitating communication and situational awareness in the field. Furthermore, the project initiated the reconstruction of 3D environments, including the first pilot site, to support immersive training activities for Law Enforcement Agencies and improve their operational preparedness.
The first field demonstration exercise in Athens was successfully conducted, demonstrating the capabilities of the initial SAFEGUARD solution and providing valuable operational feedback. Based on the outcomes of the demonstration exercise and the refined technical requirements, the project technologies have been further enhanced with additional functionalities. In particular, the SAFEGUARD IoT infrastructure was expanded with multiple fixed cameras, while work is ongoing towards integrating a robotic dog equipped with cameras. At the same time, the Augmented Reality application has been updated to incorporate these additional data sources, while further improvements to the SAFEGUARD graphical user interfaces are being implemented to enhance the user experience.
To ensure that the project outcomes are effectively disseminated and exploited, SAFEGUARD has made ongoing efforts to engage relevant stakeholders. As part of this effort, the project organised its first workshop in Athens, joined by sibling projects and external stakeholders, to discuss best practices and challenges regarding the protection of public spaces.