Reflections from the NOBLE Conference

NOBLE’s 49th annual conference in Hollywood, Florida, left attendees with a renewed sense of community and unity. Chiefs and sheriffs discussed using technology less in isolation and more about how to align people, processes, and the technology to reduce harm while strengthening trust. The message was simple: define the results that matter, display them on the dashboard, and report them in plain language that both residents and officers can understand.

Miami’s Turning the Tide on Gun Violence

A standout session came from Miami’s multi-disciplinary team. Their approach begins with collaboration through the formation of multi-agency alliances, including law enforcement, healthcare, and Community Violence Intervention (CVI) groups. In addition to viewing gun violence as a public health issue in the community, Miami uses data-driven analysis, combining social network analysis, seasoned outreach workers, and partnerships across various agencies that share data. This collaboration lets Miami deal with gun violence at a holistic and intersectional level, which can have a greater impact than police response alone.

Miami highlighted the impact of using technologies, such as ShotSpotter® and the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), as part of its gun violence reduction plan. Miami’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center leans on proven crime-gun tools and technology integration as part of the strategy to combat gun violence. The Miami team also credited ShotSpotter gunshot detection and the associated Insight analytic tools for identifying critical areas, times, and patterns associated with gun violence, which help drive the multi-disciplinary efforts to reduce gun violence.

Leading with LOVE: Practical Steps to Strengthen Trust

Another strong session was AJ Ali’s workshop on L.O.V.E.-based policing, which highlighted an innovative approach to enhancing community relationships with law enforcement. The model created by Ali is built around four habits:

• Learn about the people
• Open your heart to their needs
• Volunteer to be part of the solution in their lives
• Empower others to do the same

Agencies that consistently practice these habits are seeing stronger public trust, improved officer safety, and healthier teams. Ali shared insights on how police agencies across the nation have successfully implemented the L.O.V.E. principles to foster greater public trust, ensure officers’ safety, and enhance community safety overall.

Measuring Technology’s Value

A consistent thread across NOBLE and recent industry writing is that chiefs should evaluate technology by the outcomes it enables, not just the invoice total. I was honored to be one of the panelists at the NOBLE session, “Measuring Technology’s Value Beyond Cost,” which focused on how public safety technology cannot be measured solely by cost. Responsible technology deployment must be thoroughly evaluated, focusing not only on the system and its capabilities but also on transparency, accountability, and community voice.

The most credible technology is not always the one with the most enhanced features or the longest list of tools. The best technology is part of an overall plan to reduce crime, improve evidence collection, strengthen the legitimacy of policing, build community relationships, and gather stakeholder backing to sustain the programs that work best in the community. The perspective laid out in the session on “Measuring Technology’s Value Beyond Cost” is straightforward: align tools with the mission, deploy them with transparency and community input, and report on results that the public can see. Agencies that do this well are earning support while driving improvements in the outcomes that matter.

A Closing Thought for Law Enforcement Professionals

Throughout the event, two themes kept surfacing across sessions and hallway conversations. First, community trust grows when we lead with empathy backed by action. Second, data and discipline are what turn good intentions into sustained reductions in violence. Those lessons also echo an argument I have found persuasive elsewhere this year: the value of technology must be judged by outcomes that matter to communities, not solely by line-item price.

This year’s NOBLE also reminded me that sustainable public safety is a craft of leadership. The executives who combine a justice-minded posture with evidence-driven discipline are building the agencies their communities deserve. Trust-centered engagement reduces friction on the street. Clear crime-gun workflows reduce investigative churn. When officers can see that their daily work is connected to fewer shootings, safer neighborhoods, and community support, it lifts morale and reduces burnout. This is what modern policing can look like when leaders combine collaboration, empathy, technology, data-driven analytics, and transparent reporting.