Inside the Harris Frontline Innovation Lab, a focused team working to put responsible, practical AI in the hands of law enforcement, fire, EMS, and public safety professionals.
The biggest names in technology have teams dedicated entirely to artificial intelligence. So does SmartCOP.
The Harris Frontline Innovation Lab is a robust, focused group with one job: figure out how AI can make the daily work of public safety faster, simpler, and safer, then prove it works before it ever reaches your agency.
We built the Lab because public safety cannot afford AI that feels bolted on, risky, or disconnected from the work. Officers, firefighters, medics, dispatchers, records staff, and command teams need tools designed around how they actually operate, not around a technology trend.
Why a dedicated lab
Most software teams build features, support customers, and improve the products agencies rely on every day. That work matters, and we do not want to pull product teams away from the trusted SmartCOP solutions customers use to run daily operations.
The Innovation Lab gives us a focused place to explore what is next while allowing our product teams to stay focused on product quality, customer support, roadmap commitments, and the best customer experience possible.
The Lab has a different role. It explores, tests, validates, and reduces risk before ideas become products.
Where the Lab focuses its work
The Lab spends its time looking at where public safety work gets slowed down. Too many searches. Too many reports. Too much data spread across systems. Too many manual steps when people are already working under pressure.
Some ideas come from product teams. Some come from customer conversations. Some come from seeing the same problem show up across CAD, RMS, fire, jail, analytics, and field operations.
The Lab gives those ideas a place to be tested before they become distractions for product teams or commitments to customers. If an idea does not help the people doing the work, it does not move forward. If it does, we keep refining it until it is ready.
As simple as asking a question
One of the guiding principles behind the Lab is that powerful tools should not be hard to use.
If a detective, supervisor, chief, fire officer, or analyst can ask a question in plain language and get the right information in seconds, that matters. No custom report. No digging through multiple systems. No waiting days for someone else to pull the data.
That is the kind of future the Lab is working toward. Not technology that replaces public safety judgment, but technology that helps people get to the facts faster so they can make better decisions.
For SmartCOP customers, that could mean better access to operational data, faster answers from CAD and records information, improved reporting, stronger analytics, and tools that reduce repetitive work.
AI, used responsibly
Public safety data is some of the most sensitive information there is. That means AI has to be handled differently here than it might be in other industries.
Everything the Lab builds is approached with security, privacy, auditability, and criminal justice information requirements in mind from the beginning. Responsible AI is not a separate step at the end. It is part of the design from day one.
The goal is not to let AI make decisions for public safety professionals. The goal is to help users find information, identify patterns, summarize work, reduce manual effort, and support decisions that still belong to trained professionals.
In public safety, innovation and responsibility are not competing priorities. They have to move together.
Who’s behind the Lab
The Innovation Lab is led by people who understand public safety from both sides: the people who build the technology and the people who have worked with agencies using it every day.
This is not a group chasing buzzwords. The Lab is built around practical public safety experience, product knowledge, and direct feedback from agencies. The work is focused on real problems that affect law enforcement, fire, EMS, dispatch, records, command staff, and public safety operations.
Todd Thompson
SVP, Strategic Development and Lab Lead
Todd Thompson leads the Harris Frontline Innovation Lab and brings more than 35 years of public safety and public safety technology experience to the role.
He began his career as a deputy sheriff in McLean County, Illinois, before moving into public safety software, integrated justice, records management, and cross-agency data sharing. Over his career, Todd has helped pioneer one of the nation’s early integrated justice systems and one of the first online SaaS records management platforms, now used by hundreds of agencies and thousands of public safety users nationwide.
Harris Frontline’s commitment to the broader public safety industry is reflected in Todd’s work with IJIS, a national nonprofit organization focused on information sharing, interoperability, and technology standards across justice, public safety, and homeland security. Todd serves on the IJIS Board of Directors and the IJIS CJIS Advisory Committee, helping Harris stay involved in the conversations shaping public safety technology, standards, and policy.
Todd also co-chaired updates to the National Standard Functional Specifications for Law Enforcement Records Management Systems in 2021 and 2025. That work continues as technology advances, helping ensure the Lab’s efforts stay connected to real operational needs and the broader direction of the public safety industry.
Adam Calvery
Co-Lead, Frontline Innovation Lab
Adam Calvery co-leads the Frontline Innovation Lab’s public safety work, bringing a background in military service, product leadership, and technology delivery.
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Adam has spent more than 25 years building and scaling platforms that solve complex operational problems. His work in the Lab focuses on AI-driven decision support, CJIS-conscious data access, and practical tools for law enforcement, fire, EMS, and public safety operations.
Adam brings a delivery-focused mindset to the Lab’s work. The goal is not just to explore what AI could do, but to turn the right ideas into reliable, measurable solutions that agencies can trust.
Built with public safety in mind
The Lab is intentionally focused on real-world operations. Ideas are shaped by direct input from agencies, product teams, and customer conversations that reveal where the work actually slows down.
That matters because public safety professionals can spot the difference between a useful tool and technology built just to say you have it. The Lab’s job is to make sure ideas are tested against real operational needs before they are put in front of customers.
SmartCOP already provides a complete, integrated platform across CAD, mobile, records, jail, and analytics. The Lab’s role is to identify where AI can strengthen that platform in ways that are meaningful, secure, and compliant with the standards public safety agencies depend on.
Innovation for public safety cannot just be impressive. It must be useful, secure, explainable, and worth the time of the people who depend on it.
What This Means for SmartCOP Customers
The Harris Frontline Innovation Lab is one more example of SmartCOP’s long-term investment in the agencies we serve, and it is built with direct input from the people who use our products every day.
Customer ideas drive the Lab’s agenda. We actively solicit feedback from agencies about the challenges they face and the capabilities they need. Those insights shape which problems the Innovation Lab prioritizes and which solutions move forward into development.
Customers participate in proof-of-concept testing. Before new capabilities leave the Lab, select customer agencies have the opportunity to evaluate them in real-world conditions. This hands-on participation ensures that what works in development also works in the field, where it matters.
Customers are part of the development process. From early-stage concept review to pilot deployments, we partner with agencies who want to help shape the future of public safety technology. Their operational expertise keeps the Lab grounded in practical reality.
As AI capabilities mature within the Lab, they will be introduced into SmartCOP products thoughtfully, with the same focus on reliability, compliance, and practical value that customers expect from the platform today.
If you have questions about SmartCOP, want to learn more about where the platform is headed, or are interested in participating in Innovation Lab initiatives, your SmartCOP customer service team is always available to help.
