Minority Business Owner Darrell Choates Sr. frustrated with the increasing violence and traffic in Philadelphia decided to do something about it. Through hard work and perseverance Mr. Choates brought together a new technology-based collaborative. Together this Collaborative Team consisting of ‘Choates, Mobi and Innovative’ synced their ideologies to create the “Smart Safe City Network Pilot Program” to provide Real Answers in ‘Real Time’ and support systems to address the Violence in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Smart Safe City Network Pilot Program, will launch on Friday, March 19, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. with a news conference at City Hall (northwestern side), 1401 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Philadelphia, PA.

A delegation of local dignitaries, including 3rd District State Senator Sharif Street, are slated to join the initiative’s lead sponsor, Darrell Coates, Sr., of Choates G Contracting, LLC, and representatives from its technology partners, Mobility Insight (Mobi) and Innovative Technology Holdings.

Members of the press are invited to attend to learn about the latest, state-of-the-art Internet of (IoT) technology that will assist the City of Philadelphia to more efficiently manage traffic, crime, and emergency systems.

This event will also be televised on all social media platforms and all media outlets available to us.

The Smart Safe City IoT Pilot Program will be implemented in three core phases with the goal of reducing the City’s extremely high levels of gun violence, crime, and traffic congestion—persistent problems that continue to worsen. In July 2019, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a study “...by EConsult Solutions found Philadelphians using Center City streets spend 9.7 million hours a year sitting in traffic, either in private vehicles or on buses. That costs $152 million a year in time value and transportation costs, the equivalent of a $260 tax for every person in the city.” Even more critical are these disturbing statistics recently reported by the Philadelphia Tribune: “...2020 [marked the City’s] most violent year in three decades with Black residents overwhelmingly the victims. The homicide rate for 2020 was 499, a figure up 40% from 2019, according to the police department's online database.”

“Leveraging data fusion from legacy systems, intelligent sensors, cellular networks, and connected-vehicle devices for city-scale coverage, the Smart Safe City Program provides a cost-effective solution by seamlessly integrating IoT technology with the current command centers of Philadelphia,” says Dov Ganor, Partner of Mobi. “Our Intelligent Mobility Management System is a cloud-based platform that generates real-time traffic analytics, network performance indexes, and event scorecards, giving City officials’ valuable data to debrief and make decisions to improve ingress, egress, and public safety for upcoming events throughout the City Center District.”

The Smart Safe City program’s standout feature is the ability to accurately map mobility demand—where cars are traveling from and where they are heading. Understanding the origin-to-destination patterns in the city is key for anticipating bottlenecks, preempting congestion, and transforming traffic data into predictive, optimized actionable insights in real time for full mobility situational awareness. This helps the City respond efficiently to traffic signal timing, traffic police deployment, and other public safety responses.

The system’s traffic component has already been implemented by Choates and Mobi in Atlanta, Georgia, where the results have been impressive. Brian Bayges, of Innovative Technology, says, “Philadelphia’s pilot program will also utilize Smart Safe City Camera Sensor Units, a new feature that can detect concealed weapons, perform facial recognition, and track suspicious activity in real time from district to district. Innovative’s proprietary ‘Smart Pole Technology’ is secured by digital and IP video surveillance cameras and management, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Safe Command Station.”

As the first Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) in the tri-state area to bring a Smart Safe City real-time awareness technology program to a municipality, Choates G Contracting is breaking through systemic lockouts and discrimination barriers. The collaboration’s leader, Darrell Choates, Sr., says, “Our ultimate goal is to introduce the Smart Safe City Program to cities nationally and even globally. Besides our current pilot programs in Atlanta and Philadelphia, we are also in talks with Israel; and Accra, Ghana, in West Africa. To support our goal, we have started a $50 million fundraising campaign and are actively seeking investors and potential partners for this promising opportunity.”

In addition to the officials who plan to attend the news conference, the Philadelphia Smart Safe City Network loT Pilot Program is supported by the Mayor of Philadelphia Jim Kenny’s Office, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, 3rd District State Senator Sharif Street, Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, Councilwomen Maria Sanchez, Councilman Mark Sqilla, Councilman Derek Green and Councilwoman Cindy Bass, along with city activists DKOD and Professionals For Progress, Registered Community Organizations (RCO), North Central Philadelphia CDC/RCO, The Philadelphia Black Federation, and various faith-based organizations. The Ambassadors to Choates Smart Safe City Solutions are Roy Jones, Rihana Fanty, and Ronald Fanty. Our supporting groups are Philadelphia Building Groups, The City Council of Philadelphia, Local IBEW 98 Electrical Union and Put the Gun Down organization.