By 2050, nearly three quarters of our planet will live in cities. Public safety will be a key factor in determining which city they choose.

Public officials are turning to the same technology advances that businesses have been using—autonomic sense-and-respond capabilities, analytics, visualization and computational modeling—to make our public safety systems smarter, and drive a fundamental shift from responding to events to anticipating and preventing them, when possible.

For all cities and regions competing in the global marketplace for work, investment and talent, safety and security are crucial factors in determining overall quality of life. Which is why smarter public safety isn’t just a responsibility of the state, it’s also a priority for the success of businesses, communities and civil society at large.

Let’s build a smarter planet.