The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) announced that the U.A.E. Ministry of the Interior, represented by Abu Dhabi Police GIS Center for Security, has become a Principal Member of the OGC to chair a new, planned international OGC Law Enforcement and Public Safety Working Group.

In addition to advancing technical standards and best practices as voting members of the OGC Technical Committee, Principal Members provide guidance on market direction and Consortium focus, vote to approve nominations to the OGC Board of Directors, and have authority over the development, release and adoption of OGC standards through their voting rights in the OGC Planning Committee.

The Abu Dhabi Police GIS Center for Security aims to contribute to the OGC GovFuture Program and other consortium activities that guide local, sub-national, national & international government organizations in raising awareness and adoption of OGC standards in geospatial systems and geographical information, which are critically important in government decision support systems. Abu Dhabi Police is interested in initiating and leading a Domain Working Group that would be supported by police, emergency and security forces from the UAE, the Middle East region and other world regions. The goal is to drive geospatial technology standards and approaches that support law enforcement, public safety and security, as well as encouraging research, projects, events and outreach that contribute to achieving this goal.

Mark Reichardt, President of the OGC, said, “By becoming a Principal Member in the OGC, the U.A.E. Ministry of the Interior has shown a strong commitment to the open standards community and its leadership in advancing OGC standards for improved decision making across government. It’s also important for the Middle East region that we now have an OGC Principal Member from the UAE."

"We are pleased to be the first police force in the world to be a Principal Member of the OGC, and in a position to chair a focused domain working group at the global level," said Captain Mohammed Saleh Al Mansoori, head of the GIS Center for Security in the U.A.E. "This initiative contributes to our mission of becoming an intelligence-led police force by investing in information and knowledge and adopting technology best practices and standards to fulfill our tasks and duties as a force."

About the Abu Dhabi Police GIS Center for Security

The Abu Dhabi Police GIS Center for Security has developed a strategic roadmap to utilize the capabilities of spatial systems in areas of law enforcement, public safety and homeland security. It is setting a new standard on how to plan, think and operate spatially to make location count in law enforcement and public safety.

About the OGC

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 435 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact.
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