'Data is the new currency:’ Florida agencies discuss emerging tech, data sharing
Brenna Swanston
February 4, 2025
Last month, Peregrine hosted a masterclass at the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office featuring a panel of leaders from Florida-based agencies in law enforcement, emergency management, and conservation. Representatives from 15 agencies across the Tampa Bay area and beyond attended the event to exchange insights on interoperability, interagency data sharing, and the capabilities of emerging public safety technologies.
Our panelists were:
Jodie Fiske, Director of Public Safety, Manatee County
Capt. Larry Kraus, Investigations and Criminal Intelligence Bureau, Pasco County Sheriff’s Office
Jessica Pfohl, Crime Intelligence Analyst Supervisor, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
Hon. Chris Sprowls, Former Speaker and 65th District Rep., Florida House of Representatives
Deputy Chief Michael Walek, Clearwater Police Department
As the conversation unfolded, four key themes emerged:
Cross-jurisdictional collaboration requires strong data sharing capabilities.
Data integration supports fast, informed decisions during emergencies and large-scale events.
Emerging technologies enhance public safety and community engagement.
Successful data sharing and analysis require strong agency-vendor relationships.
Keep reading to dig into those concepts.
1. Cross-jurisdictional collaboration requires strong data sharing capabilities
"Getting that common operating picture and getting everyone access to the same information so we're all playing off the same sheet of music is so much harder than it sounds. For municipalities, for counties, for state, it would be great if we all had one platform that we were all working off of and putting information into the same platform across the board, because then everybody has the same sheet of music." — Jodie Fiske, Director of Public Safety, Manatee County
As Pfohl (Florida FWC) put it, “crime doesn’t just happen in a vacuum.” Offenders cross jurisdictional lines, requiring agencies at different levels and in different regions to work together to keep their communities safe. Effective interagency collaboration requires efficient data sharing, but sharing information between agencies isn’t always easy.
Siloed data systems, restrictive regulations, and reluctance among personnel can hinder the data sharing process and slow down investigations. For example, Pfohl said state-level conservation agencies have no way to share data with each other in a simple, timely manner.
“We can’t look to see if somebody has a license in another state or if they’ve been arrested for hunting in another state,” she said. “So that’s a challenge that we face, trying to see if these targets are targets across the nation.”
Fiske (Manatee County) added that in emergency situations, data sharing is critical to ensure first responders from different agencies can work in lockstep.
“Getting that common operating picture and getting everyone access to the same information so we’re all playing off the same sheet of music is so much harder than it sounds,” Fiske said. “For municipalities, for counties, for state, it would be great if we all had one platform that we were all working off of and putting information into the same platform across the board, because then everybody has the same sheet of music.”
Capt. Kraus of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office called on technology vendors to meet the data sharing challenge.
“We need leadership to create and operate a common operating picture for more effective data sharing,” he said. “This will greatly enhance our ability to reduce threats, crime, and fulfill community expectations.”
2. Data integration supports fast, informed decisions during emergencies
Public safety agencies often work with large amounts of data scattered across multiple disparate systems that weren’t designed to talk to each other. Without an effective integration solution, personnel must search through each individual data system to find the information they need and manually piece together that information to get a full operating picture.
Siloed data sources make it nearly impossible to find critical information on the spot or understand developing situations in real time. In emergency situations, those inefficiencies can become dangerous.
During critical incidents, Pfohl said, first responders don’t always have time to jump through hoops and comb through dozens of data sources to get the information they need.
“If it could all just be in one location, it would be amazing, and we could respond and get information back to officers,” she said, “especially when you’re in a critical incident or an officer safety issue and you don't have three hours to get that information.”
According to Fiske, onboarding a data integration platform changed the game for Manatee County when hurricanes Helene and Milton impacted the area in late 2024. Manatee was able to leverage integration technology to build dashboards displaying real-time information including precipitation data, water gauge data, lift station metrics, shelter occupancy, road closures and evacuation routes, and power outages.
“By utilizing these dashboards, we were able to get ahead of the curve with our messaging to the public to keep our residents safe,” Fiske said. "We didn’t have to go to each individual river gauge with the National Weather Service. We didn’t have to go through past hurricane briefings and go back through everybody’s notes. Everything was right there. So that was incredibly helpful for us.”
3. Emerging technologies enhance public safety and community engagement
Modern tech solutions — such as drones, license plate recognition systems, and data integration platforms — enable data-driven response methods, efficient resource allocation, and stronger community connections. Deputy Chief Walek (Clearwater Police Department) emphasized the importance of public safety agencies embracing these technologies.
“The ability for law enforcement to adapt and change to this new technology is huge,” Walek said. “It’s definitely beneficial.”
Say Walek is on the phone with a citizen who has called the Clearwater PD to say they haven’t seen an officer in their neighborhood in 30 days, and drivers keep rolling through a nearby stop sign.
In that situation, Walek could go into his data integration platform right away and immediately find the data he needs: 32 traffic stops and 12 citations issued near that stop sign’s location. He can definitively tell the citizen that his officers have indeed been in their neighborhood, and the citizen may have just missed them or not noticed them if they were in unmarked cars.
“That ability to quickly access information is, in my position, extremely helpful,” he said.
Kraus shared an example of a hydrologist who used drone footage to predict flood-prone areas.
“He could precisely identify where flooding would occur,” Kraus said. “Sharing real-time drone data back to Tallahassee represents the future of technology and data sharing. This is the direction we must pursue.”
4. Successful data sharing and analysis require strong agency-vendor relationships
"Our data should work for us, not the other way around. This requires time, money, effort, and knowledgeable personnel." —Capt. Larry Kraus, Investigations and Criminal Intelligence Bureau, Pasco County Sheriff's Office
To implement effective data sharing and analysis, public safety agencies must partner with tech vendors in the private sector.
“Data is the new currency,” Kraus said. “Our data should work for us, not the other way around. This requires time, money, effort, and knowledgeable personnel.”
Traditionally, cutting-edge tech providers have been out of reach for smaller agencies. Kraus noted, “Advanced technology isn't feasible for a city police department with limited resources.”
However, emerging tech vendors now offer true interoperability and affordable products, enabling agencies of all sizes to optimize their data within budget constraints. Kraus concluded, “The solutions are being developed based on input from law enforcement, emergency management, and public safety sectors as a whole.”
As data integration solutions become more feasible for municipal public safety agencies, Hon. Sprowls (Florida House of Representatives) said he envisions institutions throughout Florida operating from the same platform. Right now, even with most Florida agencies sharing data with each other, it can still take weeks and many phone calls to retrieve and compile other entities’ information because there’s no efficient way to share it.
“I need to know what’s going on in the communities from a statewide perspective,” Sprowls said. “They don’t want to know a month from now what’s going on in your communities. They want to know now, because they need to make executive-level decisions.”
If all of the agencies in Florida used the same data integration platform to share data, all participating organizations would be pre-verified and vetted for instant information sharing — compliant with granular permission settings. However, Sprowls noted that Florida had a long way to go.
“We can’t build this today,” he said, “but we’ve got to start somewhere.”
How Peregrine streamlines interagency data sharing
Peregrine is a data integration and decision-making platform that supports data democratization. That means Peregrine integrates data from virtually any source, at scale, and gives customers flexible, secure access to all of their data — even if it imposes additional costs on our business.
But true interoperability goes beyond the vendor-agency relationship; it applies to the agency-agency relationship, too. Peregrine strengthens those relationships by enabling simple, instant, secure data sharing between participating entities. Customers can use permission controls to determine which information can get shared and who can share it, and the platform is regulation compliant.
Pfohl encouraged other Florida agencies to consider Peregrine as their data sharing platform.
“It’s going to take all of us advocating, all of us backing up Peregrine, all of us trying to push for that, because it benefits all of us to have everything in one central location to where we’re not having to waste the time of looking through everything,” she said.
To learn how Peregrine can revolutionize cross-jurisdictional collaboration in your region, contact our team.
