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New Technology SIG
by John Johnson - October 03, 2001 at 19:16:21:
There are over 900 officers and 280 vehicles in the City of Long Beach Police Department. I work in the Wireless Communications Division of Technology Services/Network Services in the city. We are just completing updating the computers in all of the cars, SUV's and support vehicles. The computers are by Litton Industries. The Mobil-VU LCD screen has a touch panel in front of it, allowing rapid access to the various screens of the software. The LCD is bright enough to be seen in full daylight. It can draw up to 5 amps at full brightness. There is a dimmer control to lower the illumination at night.The computers are mounted in the trunk of the patrol cars with the Vehicle Radio Modem (VRM) that is the data radio that is connected to the serial port. The original computers had Pentium 266MHz processors. The latest computers have 500MHz Celeron chips. (Apparently the original chip is no longer available.) The VRM operates in the 800MHz range. The Ford Expeditions have the computer and VRM located under a storage box that is located where the rear seat would have been.
The computer system also includes a RF LAN. The LAN antenna is mounted on the package shelf at the rear window. The RF LAN has a limited range of only about 150 feet. It allows the officers to type their reports at the scene, store them temporarily and then download the information in the parking lot of the Division station (there are four Divisions in the city) at their convenience and better serve the public.
Tiburon makes the software. It allows the officers to run license plates on cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, trailers and boats. They can also run Wants and Warrants by either driver's license or name.
One of the advantages of the system is that it cuts down on the amount of traffic on the four voice channels. The officers can acknowledge a call sent to them on the data channel on either the data or voice channel. The dispatchers are able to spend more time on the emergency calls, rather than on the routine work.
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