Most people probably wouldn’t think of the local police as one of the vanguards of mobile computing technology, but the Police in Memphis, Tennessee are pushing the envelope, and its saving them time and money.The first big sea-change in Law Enforcement technology was the two-way radio. It transformed policing from a slower-paced “walk the beat” model to the so-called professional model, wherein citizens call into 911 and officers are dispatched to respond. As time went on, and radios moved from the car to the belt, officers depended on them more and more, using them in much the same way that Officers on the Starship Enterprise used their computer, by talking to dispatchers and getting results back. If they pull someone over, arrest someone, or take a witness statement, they would be able to radio details back to the station, where someone would look through the records and find out if there were outstanding arrest warrants or other pertinent information.
Over the past couple of decades, mobile computing has been creeping into this process. If you were to peek inside the window of your local police cruiser, there’s a good chance it would have a laptop mounted in it. These days, when you get pulled over, and you have to spend a few minutes in the hot seat, he’s typing your license plate into the computer. Then he takes your license and types that in too. Those numbers are run through various local, state, and federal databases. This avalanche of data has become one of the cornerstones of modern police work. Unlike on Star Trek, however, calling numbers into a dispatcher isn’t very efficient, because it requires a bunch of people on the other end of the radio. The laptop method is more automated, but it requires that the officers be tethered with a mountain of bulky and expensive computer and telecommunications equipment.
This is where Memphis’ mobile computing project comes in. Their officers carry a relatively ordinary Windows Mobile smartphone from Verizon, the XV6700, with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard. The mobile device gives the officers an interface to enter in the identifying details of the automobile or suspect, then displays all of the pertinent information, then pre-populates the correct paperwork with the appropriate details from the database. Routine reports can be substantially filled out by just accepting the pre-filled information and selecting a few menus.
For some reports, however, there’s a fair amount of information that needs to be entered in. In the olden days, the officers would write down their notes in a notebook then go back to the station and type up the full reports. There are several reasons why this was a crummy method. Nobody likes transcribing notes, and from the time that the notes are taken to when they’re transcribed, memories fade, handwriting becomes unrecognizable, etc. Plus, who wants to save up all the paperwork for the end of the shift to do all at once, when you’re tired? Memphis’ method is for officers to submit the complete report right away, where it’s submitted over the network and available to the rest of the agency within minutes. The only problem was that, as any road warrior knows, it can get annoying to type a long narrative with a tiny keyboard. Officers complained not just of thumb strain, but also of eye strain, from peering into the small display.
Memphis’ mobile strategy was rolled out two years ago, and thumb and eye strain notwithstanding, it’s been a successful and popular program. Right now the agency is rolling out a substantial upgrade to the program: a portable terminal device called the REDFLY that doesn’t replace the smartphones, but rather extends them with a larger keyboard and monitor, making it easier to do long-form data entry. With the REDFLY available, officers can still just carry the small device around, but pull out the big keyboard when they need it. The terminals can connect to the handhelds over USB or Bluetooth, and are netbook-sized, with a 7 inch 800×480 display and five hour battery life. They have no CPU or memory. They’re just a terminal for the handheld, which makes them more durable (more disposable) and inexpensive. MSRP is $199.
Jim Harvey, Memphis Police’s technology manager, who we interviewed for this article, said that if they were to go the laptop route instead of the mobiles, it would be very expensive. The industry standard is a hardened laptop like the Panasonic Toughbook, along with costly mounting hardware and labor, totaling several thousand dollars each, not counting wireless network fees and ongoing support. In contrast, through their volume deal with Verizon, the agency pays less than $40 per month for the data service and the XV6700s are free. So it’s a good deal for the taxpayers. Now throw in another $200 for the REDFLY, and the cops are happier and can type faster, and it’s still not breaking the bank.
One of the most interesting aspects of Memphis’ system is its surveillance camera support. Like many cities, Memphis has a program that allows both public and private video surveillance cameras to stream their feed to the police department. These feeds can be brought up on screen in the agency’s control center, so, for example, if there’s a robbery in progress, personnel back at the station can see what’s happening if there are any area cameras pointed in the right direction, and many cameras can actually be remotely panned, so local cameras can be trained at the action. This is where the mobile strategy comes in. Live camera feeds can be sent to individual officers’ handsets, so officers who are responding to a call or are about to enter a building can view video of the scene on his or her handset device, to get a better idea of what they’re heading into.
In conclusion, Memphis Police Department seems to have brought law enforcement into the future without making radical changes to the way its officers do their everyday work, and without spending a lot of money. Their success has mostly to do with a well-organized rollout and well-designed software. The REDFLY is a very interesting product that promises to overcome an inherent deficiency in the mobile hardware, namely the small screen and keyboard. We’ll be interested to see how well that new product works under real-world conditions.
There’s one thing that gets me wondering how good this can be. If law enforcement become slave to these tech, what would be their reaction if it becomes unusable right away? And what are the security around this?
Like this smartphone surely use the standard GSM waves. Nothing could stop me from sniffing packets and grabbing data if thing aren’t rightly encrypted.
And if I get pulled over, what stops me from having a wave jammer in my car trunk, leaving the poor officer without any mean to verify my plate/id. Would he let me go?
There’s always the fallback of radioing it in, just like they used to do. The security question is a valid one, though.
And I’m sure that, after they pull the same person over a few times and every time they have to radio in the information, they would eventually get suspicious and ask in there polite manor to search the vehicle.
Well, Verizon actually uses CDMA not GSM, but your questions hit the nail on the head. Then again, as far as security goes, radio signals can be intercepted as easily as any phone signal, even easier given that often those transmissions are in the clear, full voice and everything. You can even buy devices to do that… they’re called police scanners. You can listen to their radio traffic through these, it’s just a radio tuned into the proper frequencies, though without the ability to talk on those frequencies obviously.
Data interception would take a bit more effort, though it could be done. But I don’t really see how it’s any less secure than the radio system. anyone determined enough is going to find a way around whatever system is used and whatever security measures that are put in place.
I think becoming dependent on this technology is more dangerous. Just take a look around and you’ll see how dependent even the average person is on technology these days, then apply that dependence to the police force. I think they’d better keep their radios on hand even with this new system in place.
last month the german mickey-mouse magazine included a little radio (some spy-super-duper-crap)
only problem was that you could realy listen to german police-radios with it
i’m not sure how the whole thing ended for disney…
Is that illegal in Germany? It’s not illegal here in the U.S to own a police scanner that allows you to listen in to local police radios. I think there are regulations on how far they can receive and the like, and obviously they’re not allowed to contain any decryption software so no listening into the CIA or FBI, , but it’s perfectly legal to own one that allows you to listen to your local police.
It is. You are not allowed to receive any transmissions that are not intended for you / your rig. Police radio is part of our BOS (authorities and organisations with security concerns) radio system. This BOS radio is not public, as for example, CB and amateur radio are. Technical documentation is mostly public, even organization principles, frequencies, signal codes and call names can be obtained legally via books (e. g. Marten: BOS handbook, vol I and II).
In fact, it’s not illegal to own such a kind of receiver in Germany. It’s just illegal to turn it to BOS frequencies and listen to the police talk.
Special circumstances apply when a radio amateur accidentally receives messages that are not intended for him / his station. He has the duty (1) not to talk to others about the content of the messages received, (2) or the fact about receiving them, and (3) not to record them to an audio device or write them down or process them in any other way.
The only ones who are allowed to participate in BOS radio are those who have an explicit permission from the local authority they belong to, e. g. the police, the fire department or the hospital helicopter. They may do so only while they are on duty. They may not listen to police radio when they are at home.
As I said: In Germany: Own yes, listen no.
We implemented a similar system for a small local police department a few years ago.
The hardware was a pentium M powered 1024×768 touchscreen “brick pc”, mounted on an movable arm with a separately mounted usb backlit keyboard/trackpad that could be detached and pulled onto the officer’s lap. The system connected to HQ over CDMA modems, but all traffic was encrypted (AES) over an IPsec VPN tunnel.
We still support the system and it works rather well.
Not sure that is pratical.
1. You have to switch off your car engine.
2. You will have to load your car with lots of large batteries to TX enough power, give the car is a metal box
Once the office sees your rear suspension loaded I am sure they will ask to see inside!!
I’ve used the Redfly terminals, though the one I used was the more expensive model with the eight hour battery. They’re really nice devices, they can pretty much turn that Windows Mobile smartphone you have into a equivalent of a low-powered netbook. They’re perfect for this kind of task, I’m surprised this is the first time it’s been tried.
Somehow I really doubt that. Iirc, even the old IBM terminals of yore had a 8085 or equivalent. No doubt the REDFLY has some low-powered ARM or equivalent driving it. And it needs some memory of course, even if only for the frame buffer.
JAL
Of course you are certainly correct. I should have been more precise in my language. The Redfly is a terminal, and depends on the portable device’s memory and CPU, but it requires some processor and memory for its own operation. I’m not actually certain of the specs, however.
In every success there is always an abuse of advancement. We now have high tech gadgets. As it grows tremendously criminal acts becomes indisputable. But anyway, my point here is to create a security despite of unsecured environment. Just recently, an FBI officer accused of abuse of authority. sneaking around the dressing room inside the mall. Cell Phone has a lot of advantages. you can now install it to your car as a GPS tracking device. It would sounds great if enough members of the open-source community would take notice and create great applications for it.
http://spyville.com/telephonerecorder.html>Spy
Edited 2009-04-22 08:29 UTC