The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software.
Joe Coldebella:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Broadband Bunch. We are in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the NTCA SRC Live event. I’m your host, Joe Coldebella. Joining me today is Liz Kohler, the founder of Nexion Solutions. Liz, welcome to the Broadband Bunch.
Liz Kohler:
Thank you so much for having me, Joe. I’m so excited to be here.
Joe Coldebella:
We are excited to share your story as well. We concentrate on the broadband industry, but when we’ve got folks that come in that touch the industry but aren’t part of the industry, we think it’s important to share those stories. So before we dive into that, I was wondering if you could share your background.
Liz Kohler:
Professionally, personally, or the weaving together of the two?
Joe Coldebella:
Let’s weave.
Liz Kohler:
My professional background is in the tech space, so I’ve always been a tech girl, in healthcare emergency response technology. So the “I’ve fallen and can’t get up” button is kind of my jam as is telehealth a thing we’ve touched on a lot here at the conference. And I’ve been doing that for about 17 years. My personal history, which weaves into the creation of this product specifically, is that 16 years ago I lost my sister to domestic violence. And this is a story that I’ve shared with you.
But since that time, since that loss, it was important to me that if I was going to get up every day and do something and toil in the world, it contributed to a solution that is the public health crisis of domestic violence. And so a couple of years ago I pivoted and took a seat and did a little stint in the DA’s office in victim services in Milwaukee, my hometown.
And there I saw that the problem of ongoing violence was much greater than domestic violence. It was not limited to domestic violence. There are human trafficking survivors who experience ongoing violence on a regular basis as well as what we call high-risk witnesses inside of the criminal justice system. Sitting in that seat afforded me the view that there was probably a better way that we could protect these people.
When we look to protect people who are witnesses, who are domestic violence survivors, our only recourses are typically to wall them into their homes. We change their locks, we add security systems, and all those things are great because you need to go home to a place that feels safe. But it imprisons them. They’re safe when they’re in their home, but they can’t go out. So I was talking to a woman one day, and she was expressing her fears about going to the grocery store for having her child walk to school on his own.
And I just thought that there was a better way that we could protect those people. When I got off the phone with her all my history in wearables and emergency response kind of collided with her story inside of me. And I realized we could create a wearable that would protect people who are at high risk for violence. So that’s what we did.
Joe Coldebella:
Wow. That’s an incredible story. And it’s one that absolutely needs to be told. And so you pivoted, and you created your company.
We’re here at this conference and everyone’s excited because we just had, for the industry, $42 billion in BEAD funding.
Liz Kohler:
Yes, huge win.
Joe Coldebella:
Everyone likes talking about video games, but then you are on a panel. It’s an uncomfortable conversation, but I really compliment the NTCA for saying that in rural areas, unfortunately, this is a problem.
Liz Kohler:
It is. And in fact, in rural areas not only the frequency, but the severity of domestic violence is actually higher than in urban areas, which is something I don’t think most people are aware of.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah. When you told me that before, I was shocked.
Liz Kohler:
Yeah. And to the tune of about 7%. So where you have 22% frequency rates in rural areas, you have about 17% in urban areas, which is, 15%, sorry, my math is terrible today. But it’s a marked difference. And part of that is because, in rural areas, we don’t have the same access to services that we do in urban ones. So if I call the police from my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they’re there in five minutes or less.
If I’m out in rural Maine, which is where I love to go on vacation from time to time when I get to take a vacation, if I call the police, it’s 40 minutes. So there is a marked difference in terms of access to services. And the focal point, I think for this conference and the really beautiful leadership of the NTCA is in the focus on how we can use broadband, and how can we leverage broadband and technology to create better access points to get the help that people so crucially need.
Joe Coldebella:
It is finding solutions to problems that people don’t want to talk about, but they’re out there. So you created this product, NightWatch. I would love it if you could just unpack it for us.
Liz Kohler:
Absolutely. And there are kind of three primary pieces of the solution that utilize broadband, right? So we have the device itself, which is essentially a standalone device. It’s basically a cell phone strapped to your wrist. And so because it cannot be tethered to your smartphone. If your smartphone is not charged, if it’s not with you, if it gets taken away, if it’s turned off, it’s an imperative thing in life safety in general to have any product that supports life safety to be a standalone piece.
So it is a standalone cell phone on your wrist. It utilizes connectivity to connect you to an emergency response operator. So when you press that button to get help, a call goes out and an audio recording is captured. In a lot of domestic violence situations, you have a he said/she said situation that happens. The audio recording substantiates the voice of the survivor or victim.
The operator gets the call on the other side, and then they arrange for dispatch. So they’ll call the police, and they can provide them with a whole bunch of information that they wouldn’t have otherwise. So when police are responding to the situation, they know who the perpetrator is. They know if they’re armed, and they know who the person is that they’re protecting. They know if there are kids in the home and if there’s a dog, which can complicate situations with law enforcement. So the police are safer when they’re responding to a call for help, which is critical.
Joe Coldebella:
That is great. I always marvel at them because when everyone’s running in the opposite direction, they’re running —
Liz Kohler:
They’re running into the fire. Yeah.
Joe Coldebella:
So when they have the maximum amount of information, they can go in there and understand the situation they are entering. This is who we need to look out for; this is who we need to protect. So it’s incredible. And so it records the voices and picks it up audibly?
Liz Kohler:
Yep. It utilizes the microphone on the device itself and captures the audio. And that can then be used as evidentiary support in an upcoming case proceeding. So that’s a critical component as well. So it supports law enforcement and the judiciary.
Joe Coldebella:
So in some states, you must ask for permission.
Liz Kohler:
Yes. You do.
Joe Coldebella:
To record someone. So if a person is, has the device on, how does that work?
Liz Kohler:
So there are two legal components to that. There are single-party recording states, and there are two-party recording consent states. I live in Wisconsin, which is a single-party consent recording state. So if you and I were having a conversation and I was taping it if I knew that’s enough. But the only way this would come into play in a legal situation is if, for example, I am a witness in a case. And I wanted the audio that was captured to stand instead of my verbal testimony being in the courtroom, then in a two-party recording state that would become an issue. The opposing counsel could argue that their client didn’t know that they were being recorded. Therefore it’s inadmissible as evidence, but if I’m there appearing in person, you can provide any support and any augmentation to my testimony.
Joe Coldebella:
So then they could refer to it.
Liz Kohler:
Exactly.
Joe Coldebella:
Right. That’s great. Of the little bit of legalese I know, I know that is an issue sometimes. So this is a great safety net.
Liz Kohler:
It is a critical safety net for people. Going back to your original question though, there are two other pieces that kind of utilize broadband. So we have a platform called NightWeb that augments the NightWatch devices. And those are used by our customers, assistant district attorneys, and advocates. Much like a telehealth dashboard, if you’re familiar with kind of a nurse’s telehealth dashboard, our advocates log into NightWeb in the morning. What they see is everything that’s going on with the people who are using these devices in the field. And they are color-coded red, yellow, and green, much like a telehealth dashboard. So an advocate might log in, and she’ll see these two people are in red. They had crisis events last night. I need to find out what’s going on with that.
And then she can download the recordings. She can listen to anything that she wants to better understand what happened and how she can then support that person in the days that come. So that’s kind of the value to our actual customers themselves. And then the third component is that this solution in total, those two pieces, NightWatch and NightWeb, give us the capability to data mine in a space where we can’t do anything right now, which is in the heart of violence. So we are standing inside of violent events with people in support of people. But what precedent tells us is that by digging into those events, looking at what transpired, looking at vital statistics that happened, and looking at audio componentry, we know that we can get predictive about how we can help people in the future.
And I’m not talking about Minority Report, the movie with Tom Cruise. I’m talking about things like, if you are in a crisis event when you leave here tonight, your body dumps adrenaline into itself to help you fight or flight, or fight or flight syndrome. When that happens, it does very specific things to your heart. So we right now are monitoring people’s heart rates. So if we can tease out and create an algorithm from that heartbeat change that happens, we can actually use the heartbeat change to call for help, as opposed to the person having to press the button themselves.
Joe Coldebella:
Well, that’s crazy.
Liz Kohler:
It’s crazy to think about, but we’re right there.
Joe Coldebella:
But also if someone’s in a situation, and they can’t scream out for help, they have a —
Liz Kohler:
Backup.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah. Wow. That’s great.
Liz Kohler:
Their body is calling for help.
Joe Coldebella:
Sort of like a guardian angel.
Liz Kohler:
Oh, I love that. Can I use that?
Joe Coldebella:
Listen, you may have whatever you want. I mean, I’m just blown away by your — I’m sure it’s a tremendous sacrifice emotionally to just talk about it.
Liz Kohler:
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you for holding this story. As I said earlier, I think to you, it’s not really my story. It’s an honor for me to sit next to the stories that I’m holding for other people.
Joe Coldebella:
You have case studies as well in terms of using the wearable. I would love it if we could sort of tap into that as well. I would love it if something like this is adopted throughout the country. It is an invaluable service.
Liz Kohler:
That’s my goal. So early on, after we had launched, one of the most critical things that has happened so far to a user of our device is, that she was engaged in a violent altercation. Her abuser had a gun, and the first thing he did, of course, was take away her cell phone. So she couldn’t call for help, but she had our device on her wrist. So she pressed the button.
And the emergency operator’s protocol is to simply listen. So the operator was listening. She heard this immense duress. She heard him say he was going to kill her. And so she dispatched police to the location immediately. Police arrived on the scene to see him pushing her into his car. And he had hit her a few times. Her face was bloody. And so they knew that this was bad. And so they chased after them as he took off but lost them in morning traffic.
So then they called me, and they said, “Can we get an updated location on the device?”
And I was like, “Yes, of course, we can.”
So I opened a Teams meeting with dispatch. And I mean, these are the really early days, right? So I’m in this Teams meeting with this dispatch guy. We’re relaying information and updated GPS information every 30 seconds to police who are responding. So they were able to chase them through the city and find his car right after he’d parked it. And at that point, he had pulled her into his apartment building. So I’m watching her data, and her LTE signal strength goes down all of a sudden. And I said, “Is there a basement by any chance in the building?” And so the police rush into this building, and they ask somebody in the lobby if there is a basement. And the woman said, “Yes. Two people just went down there.”
So police flooded into the basement, and they rescued her. They brought her home safely. But they could have gone a very different way. We’ve all seen those headlines.
Joe Coldebella:
You said that this originated with a story of five women.
Liz Kohler:
Five women, yes. Five women: three high-risk witnesses and two domestic violence victims. And one of them is still alive today. She’s wearing a NightWatch.
Joe Coldebella:
So you touched on the witnesses as well. Obviously, domestic violence is a big part of it, but witness intimidation is a big thing as well.
Liz Kohler:
Huge. And people know nothing about this. I knew nothing about this until I worked in the DA’s office. And once you learn about it, you realize, Eureka, of course, this is a problem, right? If you’re in the judiciary or you’re in law enforcement, this is a daily existence. But for everybody else, it’s a non-existent thing.
So witness intimidation, and this became better known in the 1980s when the phrase “snitches wear stitches” became popular. But it exists today and was studied extensively in the nineties. And that’s the last time that rigorous bodies of research were done around witness intimidation. And I speculate and theorize that the reason for that is that it hasn’t changed. We haven’t been able to make a dent in it.
Now, various, progressive DA’s offices have implemented things like witness intimidation units, and there are whole groups of people that listen to jail cell phone calls because you’d be astonished at how many times someone gets on the phone in the jail cell and says, “You need to take that guy out.”
But one of the first cases that I ever sat on in the DA’s office was around a double homicide. And essentially what had happened was a drug dealer had orchestrated the death of a woman who was his sole witness in his trial from his jail cell. So she had a restraining order against him, the guy in the jail cell, but nobody else. And so she was killed by one of his guys who he sent after her. She is one of my five who formed the catalyst for this company.
So witness intimidation is very effective, that is the problem. So you have a crime that occurs, right? There’s a cycle. Crime occurs then witness intimidation begins. It’s usually violent. The witnesses stay silent because they don’t want to die. And death is a reality, right? And so cases can’t move forward. These people are back on the streets and should be removed from society for a while because they’re doing bad stuff.
Joe Coldebella:
Right. And then the witness becomes the prisoner, and the person goes free.
Liz Kohler:
Yes. Yep. And the way we keep people safe is to imprison them in their homes. And so that’s one of the things I hear over and over repeatedly. Every time we put this device on someone, they’re like, “I can walk my dog again.”
I had a woman call me a few weeks ago and she just said, “I did something last night that I haven’t done in five years. I went to the grocery store at night.”
Joe Coldebella:
Wow. And we all just kind of don’t think about it because if you’re not in front of something in your life, I don’t think about stuff like that. And then as soon as you say it, it’s like, wow. It’s crazy.
Liz Kohler:
Yes. And it’s a huge problem. It really destabilizes our entire safety as communities, in homes, as individuals, to have kind of this cyclical, ongoing witness intimidation happen. So part of the impetus for and the hope of NightWatch is to form an interjection point or put a stopgap in between that cycle part of witness intimidation begins and people stay silent. Because if they have true protection, they’re more comfortable speaking up.
Joe Coldebella:
So when they get the wearable, they don’t tell anyone that they have it on.
Liz Kohler:
No, no. Confidentiality is something that we talk to them a lot about because we want to make sure that — And even when I’m doing things like this, I try not to tell too much about what it is just because fewer people know exactly what it looks like or exactly what it does the more we can keep these people protected out in the world. But that is something that we know as an organization that we’re always going to have to stay ahead of.
Joe Coldebella:
So speaking of organizations, what kind of feedback are you getting from victims’ rights organizations?
Liz Kohler:
So our initial pilot program was with the DA’s office in Milwaukee and then Sojourner Family Peace Center. But we touch law enforcement, dispatch, and our end users who are actually using the devices. So when we initially launched that pilot, we wrapped a huge chunk of research around it. “Chunk of research” is not a technical term, but you know what I mean. A very rigorous research program was wrapped around the pilot.
And so we talked to and interviewed law enforcement dispatch advocates, ADAs, prosecutors, which is the same as an ADA, but with different terminology, and then our end users. And so what I can tell you is — I’ll touch on each kind of each of their generalized pieces of feedback. Law enforcement loves this because it keeps their people safer, but it keeps them safer too. And it also adds credibility. So when they get a call from a NightWatch, they know that it is someone that the district attorney’s office or Sojourner has indicated as is at high risk for violence. They know it’s a priority-one call. There’s no, well maybe this might be a thing or maybe it’s not. They know that they must get there.
Joe Coldebella:
Right. Because sometimes they go to events there’s —
Liz Kohler:
There’s nothing going on.
Joe Coldebella:
Or there are two people and then all of a sudden, they turn on the officer.
Liz Kohler:
Yes. Exactly. So they know that it’s credible. They know how to keep themselves safe because we’ve given them a whole bevy of information that they didn’t have before. And they know that the person is probably going to be safer. So they love it for all those reasons.
Prosecutors love the additional pieces of evidence. So we provided them with audio that they didn’t have. We provide them with vital stats and stuff. So this is what was going on with their heart rate. We look at fall detection and things like that. So this is when he pushed her, you know, we can tie it to things like that. It’s pieces of evidence that they didn’t have before. So they love it for that. I had one advocate say to me at one point, she said, “I breathed a sigh of relief when I knew that it was on her because I knew she had this additional safety net.”
And then our end users, and this is an interesting thing because I’ve been in the wearables space for 17 years. As long as there have been wearables, I’ve been in the space. And you probably know the abandonment rate for wearables is astronomical. Right? Because you put a Fitbit on and within weeks people have thrown it into a drawer. That is less so with people who have chronic conditions. So if you look at kind of the healthcare space, people with chronic conditions often use their wearables for a lot longer because it ties to something bigger in their lives.
Joe Coldebella:
The “what’s in it for me” is super important.
Liz Kohler:
It’s super important. And for me, I got a Fitbit and after a few weeks I was kind of like, yeah, I don’t sleep well. I already knew that. It was kind of fascinating for a little while to see when I was waking up. But if you have diabetes or a heart condition, you’re looking at those data points every day because they’re informing your health and how your treatment plan is going. So our utilization rate for these wearables is 98%. And I’ve had people ask how that is even possible. Well, their life depends on it. And they know that. The other thing that’s really interesting is that they form this emotional attachment to the device. So they’ll say things like, “I love this.” And they’ll touch it. You know, they’ll say, “This is precious to me.”
Joe Coldebella:
Because at least it gives them a little bit of peace of mind. It just feels like I can let my shoulders down and relax a little bit.
Liz Kohler:
Yep. We’ve had people say, “I knew I was safe for the first time.” And those things obviously resonate very deeply with me. The device and the backend piece, our dashboard piece, link together kind of all these very, not disparate parties, but it gives them all kind of this continuity piece, a continuity component, that it didn’t have before. And so it’s like the way that it touches all those different parties becoming the critical component to success.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah. It’s great. Everyone who interacts with the device, kudos across the board. I just wanted to briefly talk about an award that you recently won award at CES. The biggest technology show in the world.
Liz Kohler:
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So I’ve been going to CES for years and years. They do an innovation award every year, and it falls under any number of different categories. But they introduced a new category this year that was called “Human Security for All”. And they introduced it in partnership with the United Nations. So the UN has a sanction that is called “Human Security for All”. And it looks at things like, how do we make sure that everyone has access to healthcare? How do we make sure that everyone has access to education, clean water infrastructure, and things like that? And so the Consumer Technology Association said, “Technology should be part of that equation. So how can we do that?”
And so they got together with the UN, and they announced this new innovation award. So we applied for that specific category, and we won in the personal security space. So there are eight different categories under “Human Security for All”. And we won in personal security. So it was thrilling. It was an honor, and it really did reinforce for us as a team and an organization that we are bringing something to the world that the world needs. You know?
Joe Coldebella:
I couldn’t agree more. We think rather insularly all about the US but there are 8 billion people in the world and everyone’s getting more and more protected. So hopefully this is just a pilot fish for bigger things to come.
Liz Kohler:
As I said to you earlier, domestic violence is not limited by borders, unfortunately. And neither is witness intimidation. It is a global issue and one I hope to be able to address.
Joe Coldebella:
I think it’s so important to get all aspects of the story just as a use case so people can use this going forward. So you also have a podcast?
Liz Kohler:
I also have a podcast. And I have to tell you, it is very strange to be on this side of the interview equation because I always ask the questions for our “Voices” podcast. So in the healthcare space, I have done some podcasts before, and it really is a beautiful platform for being able to share stories. And it has content that’s very easy to consume. You know, I can put it on while I’m doing dishes, working out, or taking a walk. I don’t have to be necessarily visually engaged.
Joe Coldebella:
I totally agree. And I also would say that we’ve sort of evolved. It used to be if two people were talking about it, a third person was writing about it. And now, I think we’ve just entered the age of where people now listen to a podcast about it.
Liz Kohler:
Yeah. And there are podcasts for virtually everything. Right. So one of the things that is critical to trauma healing is the ability to tell a story, to tell your own story. And so I just had this idea when I launched this company that I wanted to create space for our survivors to be able to share their stories if they wanted to. And I’ve already had a few people express interest. But primarily we’ve been focusing, up to this point, on our partners. So we’ve looked at the district attorney’s office, Sojourner Family Peace Center, and researchers who are researching in the space of domestic violence as our kind of primary interview pieces. But I look forward to introducing the voices of the people who have moved through these spaces and are moving into a space of healing and hopefully recovery and rebuilding.
Joe Coldebella:
And I’ll put a link to the podcast in the show notes that way if folks want to listen to it. You did a podcast with someone regarding data and the research behind it. I would love it if we could touch on that briefly because I think it’s important.
Liz Kohler:
Absolutely. My favorite part of that whole interview, and I’m just going to call out this piece of it, as she talked about how when we researched something and —
Joe Coldebella:
That’s, Dr. —
Liz Kohler:
Dr. Erin Schubert from Sojourner Family Peace Center. And they are so lucky to have her. She is a brilliant statistician. One of the things that she said that was really fascinating to me was, you know, she said, “You have to be really critical about how you interpret data.”
We can use numbers to say whatever we want them to say, but she gave an example. So let’s say that we see an increase in domestic violence calls in a neighborhood. That could be because domestic violence has gone up, or that could be a bad thing that people have become more violent. Or it could be that we’ve done this informational campaign in that space and now people are calling more. Good thing, right? And so you must look at the data and kind of everything that wraps around the data to kind of interpret and understand and then assess that data and what it tells us moving forward. I could talk at length about that interview because it was great. But that was one of the things that has stuck with me.
Joe Coldebella:
As you were laying out that story when you said more calls, I’m like, hold the phone here. We don’t want more, but if the reason is that people are acting, then that’s a great thing. And I think the great thing about data as well is especially if it’s anonymous, it allows us to be also objective. Unfortunately, we live in a world now where everyone must spin. But when you’ve got the data in front of you and then you can decide based on facts as opposed to conjecture or feeling.
Liz Kohler:
Right or speculation.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah, absolutely.
Liz Kohler:
Yeah. Or my crystal ball, which I pull out, you know, every once in a while.
Joe Coldebella:
Hey, listen, it’s funny you say that because we do have a crystal ball question that we sometimes ask our guests. But you’re doing so many fantastic things. I know that you’ve got a bunch of fantastic partners as well. I would love it if you could put a little spotlight on them as well.
Liz Kohler:
Well. Absolutely. We’re a little entity for now. But we have all these fantastic, really big partners. And I really want to highlight them because I am little right now. But these companies have stepped up and wrapped around me in a way that — I’ve worked with them for a long time. So Samsung is our device partner. And we have a team of internal folks that have literally helped us with every single engineering question we could have. They have worked with us on device costs because they know that we are providing this service to not-for-profits and the government. They have championed this internally so that at every rank of Samsung, they know about this product and this solution. So I will routinely get calls from the head of North American Government Innovation. And he’ll say, “Hey, what’s going on? How can I help?”
So we have these champions inside of Samsung, AT&T, and Rapid Response, which is our emergency operator partner. And I could not have done this without them. I’m a very loud person. I’m hard to ignore. But they could have very easily ignored me. So I am so grateful every day. And seeing how they stepped up is often the thing that keeps me going when I get tired.
Joe Coldebella:
Liz, this was a phenomenal visit. Where can folks go to learn more about you and your organization? You’re doing awesome work, and I would if I could, I would shout it from the tallest building.
Liz Kohler:
So I am obviously on LinkedIn. I’d love for people to connect with me there. Our website is nexionsolutions.com. So it’s “N” like Nancy, e-x-i-o-n solutions.com.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. So I would love it if maybe in a year’s time, we meet again and get an update. I think you’re doing awesome work. If there’s anything that we can do to help, you know, in terms of just for broadband in general, would love to help out. But thank you so very much for all you do. It’s really important.
Liz Kohler:
Thank you, Joe, and thank you for having me.
Joe Coldebella:
All right, well that’s going to wrap up this episode of The Broadband Bunch. Till next time. Thanks a lot.
