Like most other police departments around the country, New York's police dispatchers relay information about the nature of the call and its location to the officers in the cruisers via two-way radio.
But all of that has changed this year with the deployment of an enhanced 911 system, which includes the installation of 2,000 mobile data terminals (MDT) in police cruisers. Now when someone calls 911, the dispatcher relays the information in the form of a digital packet of data over the city's radio network to an available cruiser.
The new $156 million system, developed by systems integrator SHL, not only speeds the flow of information from the precincts out into the field, but also maintains its accuracy while prioritizing its importance, according to Richard Bohmer, director of strategic alliances for SHL. "Mobile computers are intelligent enough to sort calls by time received and priority, so that officers are always working on the most critical incident and the one that's been in the queue the longest."
"THE BEST TOOL"
Receiving critical information instantaneously about a 911 call in the field is just one of the benefits police have received from wireless technology.
Police officers who use MDTs in Illinois were surveyed about how they
felt using the technology. Nearly 100 percent agreed that wireless technology has increased officer effectiveness by providing easier access to remote database files, according to survey results compiled by the Illinois Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Council. One officer described the MDT as "the best tool I have been given to work with in 19 years as a police officer."
Ever since the first digital data was transmitted from police headquarters to a cruiser in the mid-1980s, the use of wireless technology has been limited to law enforcement agencies that could afford the private radio networks and mobile terminals built on proprietary technology.
Today, however, a small agency can purchase a laptop, an RF modem and can use public cellular networks to send encrypted data to officers in the field. Not only are the costs low, but officers can do more with a fully-functional laptop PC than they can with an MDT.
"Slowly but surely, more law enforcement agencies are buying into the idea of using field computers," said Alec Gagne, a former police officer and now a consultant with Abbey Group Consultants. "Portable PCs have a cost-benefit and flexibility that traditional terminals don't have." Gagne and his partner, John Abbey, a former police chief, believe the wireless trend in the law enforcement field is toward a variety of off-the-shelf handheld and portable computers, using standard operating systems. "People no longer want technology that runs on small, proprietary operating systems," said Abbey. "They want open systems and open architecture."
MDT'S OUTMODED
In 1967, the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which used one computer and relayed information to law enforcement agencies via teletype machine. Today, NCIC holds more than 24 million records that are accessible by over 60,000 law enforcement and criminal justice agencies located in all 50 states. With its up-to-date database listing outstanding felony warrants, missing persons, stolen cars and other crime-related data, NCIC has become a much sought-after resource for police. Since NCIC's inception, other national databases, such as the Interstate Identification Index and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, have bolstered law enforcement's resources, as have numerous state and local databases.
Prior to wireless computing, all officers in the field submitted their queries to dispatchers, who logged on to the databases using computer terminals at headquarters. The dispatchers then relayed the information back to the cruisers over the two-way radio. MDTs bypassed that sometimes slow procedure, allowing officers to tap directly into databases, as well as receive data on 911 emergencies.
The market for MDTs has been dominated by Motorola. Abbey estimates that Motorola controls about 80 percent of the market. Terminals have served their purpose well, but advances in technology have pushed well beyond the ability to send and receive short bursts of alphanumeric data.
The FBI's plan to replace NCIC with NCIC 2000 calls for adding capabilities that will allow officers to send and receive images of fingerprints and mugshots from the field. As an example, the FBI cited plans by the Illinois State Police to release an image-based Violent Crime Tracking and Linking system application called VITAL, which provides photographic images of known gang members. "While currently being used as an intelligence tool," stated the FBI, "the true value of such technology will come when the officer is capable of receiving these images in his vehicle."
The needs of police officers are also changing. As a result, they require computing tools with flexibility -- a quality MDTs lack. Abbey pointed out that the current trend toward community policing has caught the big vendors off guard. "Right now, there's no software for community policing," he said.
For years, Abbey and Gagne have been telling law enforcement agencies that they should be investing in technology that is open, so that they can take advantage of the price and performance improvements in portable and wireless technology that the commercial sector now enjoys.
But when it comes to technology, law enforcement agencies are not risk-takers. "We see over and over the RFP (Request for Proposal) that says the agency wants to purchase the latest, greatest high-tech widget, but it has to be proven, have five previous installations and have been in existence for four years," said an exasperated Gagne. "There's a phenomenal contradiction there."
Once there were vendors of industry-standard portable PCs, such as GRiD and Agilis, that focused on the law enforcement market. But now, both are gone and few, if any, of the mainstream vendors are willing to market their products to police officers, given the RFP requirements of law enforcement agencies. The result, said Abbey, is the continued dominance of MDT technology at a time when the police should be adopting Windows-based wireless computing.
CALLING ALL CELLULARS
But cracks are emerging in the proprietary wall. Some firms, such as RAM Mobile Data and Ardis, are offering law enforcement agencies an alternative to MDTs. Both firms have their own networks that can transmit small amounts of data via RF modems and laptop computers. A number of police departments are using these networks to run queries from the field.
Ardis and RAM use a technology called packet radio, which broadcasts data in bursts or packets at transmission rates that range from 4.8K to 8K per second (with higher transmission rates possible in certain locations.) Both companies use a network of base stations to route messages along the shortest path, and have proprietary protocols.
Another type of wireless network that police are beginning to use is cellular digital packet data (CDPD), a digital communications service that operates at rates of 19.2K per second. CDPD sends data packets over the existing cellular networks, taking advantage of idle time between voice calls to transmit data. CDPD offers two distinct features. It is built on open standards, including the TCP/IP protocol, which makes it useful for accessing the Internet, and it automatically encrypts data transmissions, ensuring the confidentiality of wireless data communications.
have bolstered law enforcement's resources, as have numerous state and local databases.
Prior to wireless computing, all officers in the field submitted their queries to dispatchers, who logged on to the databases using computer terminals at headquarters. The dispatchers then relayed the information back to the cruisers over the two-way radio. MDTs bypassed that sometimes slow procedure, allowing officers to tap directly into databases, as well as receive data on 911 emergencies.
The market for MDTs has been dominated by Motorola. Abbey estimates that Motorola controls about 80 percent of the market. Terminals have served their purpose well, but advances in technology have pushed well beyond the ability to send and receive short bursts of alphanumeric data.
The FBI's plan to replace NCIC with NCIC 2000 calls for adding capabilities that will allow officers to send and receive images of fingerprints and mugshots from the field. As an example, the FBI cited plans by the Illinois State Police to release an image-based Violent Crime Tracking and Linking system application called VITAL, which provides photographic images of known gang members. "While currently being used as an intelligence tool," stated the FBI, "the true value of such technology will come when the officer is capable of receiving these images in his vehicle."
The needs of police officers are also changing. As a result, they require computing tools with flexibility -- a quality MDTs lack. Abbey pointed out that the current trend toward community policing has caught the big vendors off guard. "Right now, there's no software for community policing," he said.
For years, Abbey and Gagne have been telling law enforcement agencies that they should be investing in technology that is open, so that they can take advantage of the price and performance improvements in portable and wireless technology that the commercial sector now enjoys.
But when it comes to technology, law enforcement agencies are not risk-takers. "We see over and over the RFP (Request for Proposal) that says the agency wants to purchase the latest, greatest high-tech widget, but it has to be proven, have five previous installations and have been in existence for four years," said an exasperated Gagne. "There's a phenomenal contradiction there."
Once there were vendors of industry-standard portable PCs, such as GRiD and Agilis, that focused on the law enforcement market. But now, both are gone and few, if any, of the mainstream vendors are willing to market their products to police officers, given the RFP requirements of law enforcement agencies. The result, said Abbey, is the continued dominance of MDT technology at a time when the police should be adopting Windows-based wireless computing.
CALLING ALL CELLULARS
But cracks are emerging in the proprietary wall. Some firms, such as RAM Mobile Data and Ardis, are offering law enforcement agencies an alternative to MDTs. Both firms have their own networks that can transmit small amounts of data via RF modems and laptop computers. A number of police departments are using these networks to run queries from the field.
Ardis and RAM use a technology called packet radio, which broadcasts data in bursts or packets at transmission rates that range from 4.8K to 8K per second (with higher transmission rates possible in certain locations.) Both companies use a network of base stations to route messages along the shortest path, and have proprietary protocols.
Another type of wireless network that police are beginning to use is cellular digital packet data (CDPD), a digital communications service that operates at rates of 19.2K per second. CDPD sends data packets over the existing cellular networks, taking advantage of idle time between voice calls to transmit data. CDPD offers two distinct features. It is built on open standards, including the TCP/IP protocol, which makes it useful for accessing the Internet, and it automatically encrypts data transmissions, ensuring the confidentiality of wireless data communications.
Bell Atlantic has been aggressive in offering CDPD to the police. Two years ago, the Groton, Conn., Police Department began using CDPD and laptop computers so that officers in the field could quickly run checks on cars and individuals. Instead of spending more than $500,000 for a private radio network -- something the city could ill-afford -- Groton police pay just $100 every month for each wireless laptop computer they use.
More recently, Philadelphia police began using Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile's CDPD network. The agency installed 70 laptop computers in its cruisers. The computers, coupled with software provided by PRC Public Sector Inc., will provide officers on the street with wireless access to national, state and federal databases, police computers, NCIC and Pennsylvania's Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The Philadelphia Police Department may eventually equip more than 1,000 vehicles with CDPD capabilities.
One problem with cellular technology, however, is the lag time or latency of transmissions. According to Abbey, a data message sent via a cellular network runs into delays as the message goes through a series of connections and network ramps in order to complete the transmission. Wireless transmissions are also susceptible to fade-outs and disconnections, which delay or disrupt messages.
The growing popularity of client/ server computing also spells trouble for wireless transmissions. Client/server applications perform numerous round trips -- exchanges of data between the client and the server -- to execute a single task, such as retrieving several rows of data from a database field. That works fine when the network runs at 10 megabytes a second -- typical for an Ethernet network. But to perform the same transaction with a wireless connection takes minutes.
To help law enforcement agencies (and other wireless customers), Oracle Corp. has developed Middleware -- special software that hooks together the wired and wireless world to improve performance of transmissions and transactions. Middleware resides between the client software on the workstation and database software on the server. According to Paul Lipvak, director of mobile computing for Oracle's government sector, the Oracle Mobile Agents (OMA) intercede between the wireless client in the field and the server on the local area network, reducing the number of round trips to complete a transaction and the response time from minutes to seconds. OMA is based on open systems and designed to operate in the world where UNIX and Windows standards predominate.
SPECTRUM LIMITED
With the typical law enforcement agency sending wireless messages that average 150 characters in length, it would appear that latency is the only problem hampering the effectiveness of wireless computing for police. But sending gray-scale images of mugshots and fingerprints back and forth between cruisers and dispatch centers will raise the amount of data transferred via radio ten-fold, pointed out SHL's Bohmer. "Unfortunately, radio spectrum is a limited resource," he added, "so we need to improve how we utilize it."
One way is to reallocate radio spectrum so that more channels are available for data transmissions. The other approach is to use technology as efficiently as possible. Bohmer believes the answers lie with improved compression technologies and better protocols. Other experts, such as Abbey and Gagne, suggest that police will have to examine the types of messages they want to send via wireless networks and then build their application around the technology. For example, community policing and public safety services, such as fire abatement programs, are unlikely to require high-speed, failsafe transmissions, whereas 911 emergencies will.
Abbey is helping the Houston Fire Department revamp how it conducts fire inspections using handheld computers, but the effort has called for reengineering workflow in the department -- a major organizational undertaking. Abbey warns that police will face similar endeavors if they want to take full advantage of wireless technology. "Police chiefs," he said, "have to figure out a new way of doing business and how technology can support that business."
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After seeing the devastation caused by the World Trade Center bombing, New York City's Police Department wasn't about to take any chances when it built an enhanced 911 emergency response system.
Not willing to tolerate a minute's worth of downtime, the police, working with systems integrator SHL (now owned by MCI), designed a system with three levels of backup. The hardware includes 10 IBM RS/6000 servers and 300 IBM 25T RISC workstations, each of which can operate independently even if all servers are down. The system's wide area network is linked with multiple FDDI rings to ensure redundant communications between the two server clusters and their clients. If one cluster were to fail, the other would take over.
While all the redundancy makes the 911 system expensive, it hasn't required the use of any proprietary technology. SHL used UNIX, Windows NT and Windows for the operating systems and developed the application using software from Forte. Another key piece of software is SHL's message switch, which provides communications with the computer-aided dispatchers in the fire and EMS departments, as well as police.
The 911 system is being rolled out in phases, starting with telephony, followed by CAD and then radio. Funds for the $156 million project come primarily from proceeds of a 35-cent surcharge on residential and business telephone customers.
