More police departments deploy Motorola mobile video system
Motorola announced that police departments in Toledo, Ohio; Southold, N.Y.; Kennersville and Cary, N.C.; and Bossier Parish, La., have deployed its Mobile Enforcer system.
Earlier this year the system was deployed by the Wilmington (N.C.) Police Department–which beta-tested the system over an 18-month period–and the Virginia Commonwealth University Police Department in Richmond, Va.
The system’s picture quality was a major attraction, according to David Holt, a lieutenant with the Toledo Police Department.
“Ultimately we are interested in the truth, and pictures can help us tell the truth,” Holt said in a statement. “[This] system offers great picture quality, which is crucial when trying to demonstrate in court what happened at the scene of an accident.”
The system includes an in-vehicle digital video recorder and digital camera, as well as a video management system that resides within the department. It offers 24-hour recording, a 60 GB storage capacity that enables 24-hour recording and MPEG-2 compression, and an auto-zoom function lets the camera capture automobile license plates, even in low-light environments, according to Motorola.
Currently, the DVR is removed from the vehicle and inserted in the video management system to archive footage, which also can be burned onto a DVD. However, Motorola is planning to introduce by the end of the first quarter 2006 the ability to upload video footage to the video management system located at the department via a 4.9 GHz mesh network, which would eliminate the need for removing the DVR from the vehicle.
In addition, Motorola plans to add an infrared digital camera to the system in August 2005 that will be mounted on the outside of the vehicle and which will focus strictly on vehicle license plates. The camera will continuously shoot license plates that come into its view and then wirelessly send queries back to a state database to determine whether any wants or warrants exist for that vehicle. Officers will be alerted in the event of a hit. The camera will be able to capture license plates even when the vehicles are moving at speeds up to about 100 miles per hour, which will aid officers in high-speed chases, according to Motorola.
