Welcome back to The CP Journal, where we break down what it takes to get left of bang.
We’re announcing a new software platform in this week’s essay, but first, some context.
On nearly every project we take on supporting local governments and public safety agencies, we interview agency leaders to understand their priorities and where our work fits within them.
Over the years, I’ve asked some version of the question: Where does this project fit within your overall risk profile?
But more often than not, I found that this was a difficult question to answer. I don’t say that as a criticism, but I do think it points to a larger problem that is much bigger than any individual organization.
A city or county can face dozens of threats and hazards. Wildfires, floods, severe weather, cyberattacks, targeted violence, infrastructure failures, public health emergencies, and hurricanes are just a portion of the list. And the risk posed by each of them changes over time.
Keeping the entire risk picture in your head—and understanding where any one threat or hazard fits within it—is incredibly difficult.
Yet being able to do that is what helps leaders decide where to focus their attention, where to invest limited resources, what capabilities need to be built, and what they should be preparing for next.
We thought there should be a better way to do that. So we built one.
Today, we’re excited to introduce Hazzard.
Hazzard is a risk intelligence platform that helps organizations understand the risks, threats, hazards, and disruptions that can impact their communities—and build that understanding fast.
It works in three steps:
First, Hazzard starts with what your organization already knows. It draws from the information contained in plans, risk assessments, standard operating procedures, after-action reports, GIS layers, and other existing sources. Using a custom-built document-parsing process, Hazzard identifies the threats and hazards already present in that information and begins building a consolidated risk picture.
Second, Hazzard helps leaders rapidly assess those risks. Using large language models, the platform develops an initial assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of each threat or hazard a leader decides is important enough to prepare for. Leaders can then review, edit, improve, and approve the assessments built from their existing data—turning what can require weeks or months of research and analysis into hours of focused consideration.
Third, Hazzard helps that understanding evolve. The platform brings together a growing set of external data sources and research to identify information that could change how an organization understands its risks and recommends updates for leaders to consider.
At the end of that process, agency leaders have immediate access to an up-to-date view of their full risk profile. They can see where they are ready, where they have room to improve, and where they may need to invest their time, effort, and budget in the year ahead.
After teaming up with our friend Chris Knight to build the platform, we began putting it in front of the people it was designed to help through a series of pilot programs.
The feedback from jurisdictions participating in our pilots has been incredibly positive and encouraging. They have helped us refine the platform and given us the confidence to believe it is ready to share more broadly with local government and public safety leaders looking to better understand the risks their communities face.
So here’s my ask. If you are a public safety leader or emergency manager and want to see what Hazzard can offer, we’d love to show you what we’ve built, learn more about how you currently understand risk, and see whether Hazzard can help your organization. If that’s you, send me an email at: patrick@hazzard.ai
And if you want to follow along as we continue to build and expand what the platform can do, we’ve also launched Hazzard Insights, where we’ll be writing about risk intelligence, technology, preparedness, and what we’re learning along the way.
We’re excited about this next step—and about another way we can help leaders get left of bang.