Juan Colon is the National Director of Opioids and Illegal Drug Solutions for the SAS Institute. He serves as an industry consultant responsible for pre-sales functions for the Law Enforcement Solutions Product Line in the Americas and the Caribbean. He facilitates the development of various technologies around public safety matters such as the opioid crisis, gangs, homeland security, and police reform. This includes the development of marketing material and thought leadership communications related to public safety. Prior to joining SAS, Colon retired in 2018 at the rank of Major after serving 25 years with the New Jersey State Police. Throughout his career, Colon served in several assignments including New Jersey Attorney General’s law enforcement drug policy advisor, fusion center commander, intelligence officer, gang expert, and drug interdiction officer. Through these experiences, he gained insights into the challenges that fusion center face in meeting their homeland/hometown security missions, law enforcement and public health information security and handling regulations and practices, interoperability, requirements management, intelligence production, and how to leverage data to support field operations as well as policy development at all levels of government. Colon’s experience enables him to ensure that SAS’s technologies are developed to meet the various public safety and homeland security demands.
Data has emerged as a crucial weapon in the battle against the overdose epidemic in the United States. Government agencies nationwide are grappling with social issues such as gun violence, gang activity, burglaries and homelessness to go along with the enduring overdose crisis. Addressing these issues requires using data to
