Subject: [NEXTEL-1] "Police, Sheriff Install Mobile Tracking Devices"

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 15:50:07 -0400

"Police, Sheriff Install Mobile Tracking Devices"
Daily Citizen (05/15/04); Holsinger, Philip

In Arkansas, the White County Sheriff's Department and the Searcy Police
Department have obtained new technology called
the Excalibur System from Pinnacle Labs for tracking vehicles from
anywhere in the county. Users can also securely access
information from criminal databases and other sources. Several police
vehicles have been recently equipped with ultra-thin
touch-screen displays that allow officers to communicate with
dispatchers and access data. The new technology could also
serve as the basis for a merged 9-1-1 system featuring cross-department
collaboration, envisions White County Sheriff Pat
Garrett. He says when an emergency call comes in, "the information
immediately pops up on the screens of the units and
dispatch," so both patrollers and dispatchers are aware of the caller's
address and condition. And he notes, "you don't have
to guess where an officer is when an emergency call comes." Garrett says
the new system is being donated by Jerry Hunter,
owner of Pinnacle Labs Mobile Technology of Little Rock, who grew up in
Searcy. Fourteen vehicles have already been
equipped with the system, and several more are to be similarly equipped
by the end of the week, says Hunter.

==================================================================

Police, sheriff install mobile tracking devices: State of the art
software donated
By Philip Holsinger

The Daily Citizen

As a Searcy police officer drives Thursday from the police department, a
dispatcher watches on a computer screen as a miniature image of the
officer's car crawls along a street through the city. At the same time,
a dispatcher at the White County Sheriff's Department watches the same
image of the vehicle, this image projected on a five-foot wide screen on
her dispatch center's wall.

In the officer's vehicle, an ultra-thin computer screen displays the
car's movement. With a touch of a finger on the screen, the officer
accesses data and can communicate, via encoded digital messaging, with
the dispatcher.

Law enforcement patrols have gone high tech in White County, Sheriff Pat
Garrett said.

Furthermore, local law enforcement is seeing in the technology the first
steps toward a new kind of interdepartmental cooperation that he
believes will mark the future of a consolidated 9-1-1 system.

"Soon, all of 9-1-1 dispatch will be under one roof, and with our police
agencies working together already it will make a big difference when
this happens," Garrett said.

Garrett, pointing to the image of the patrol car moving across the
screen in the county dispatch center, explained to gathered officials
that two things were at work before them.

One is that with this new technology, recently acquired by both the city
and county, the Searcy Police and the White County Sheriff's Department
are able to visually track specially-equipped police vehicles wherever
they are in White County, and to communicate with the cars via the touch
of a screen or click of a mouse.

"It is the ultimate in efficiency and safety," Garrett said. "You don't
have to guess where an officer is when an emergency call comes. You can
see right where the closest unit is. With this, there is no more,
'what's your 20?' And there is no more pushing buttons and transferring
calls and taking notes when a 9-1-1 call comes. When the call comes in
the information immediately pops up on the screens of the units and
dispatch. Instantaneously both dispatcher and patrol knows the address
and situation of the caller.'"

Second, the technology provides for the two policing agencies to view
each other's vehicles' locations and share information, thus adding
unprecedented safety in backup.

"Now, if an officer is in trouble and a unit from a different department
is nearby they will know it automatically, because they will see where
everyone is on the screen in their car. And the dispatcher will see it
on their screen."

What's even better, Garrett said, is the technology, possibly worth
several million dollars when in full use, is being donated totally free
by a Searcy native who developed the software and owns the company that
produces it.

"I grew up in Searcy and my family still lives here," Jerry Hunter,
owner of Pinnacle Labs Mobile Technology out of Little Rock, who donated
the technology, said. "I grew up here, and I have family here. I'm just
thankful that I'm able to provide this technology to my hometown to help
save lives, provide faster response times, and improve officer safety."

Hunter said communities the size of Searcy and White County don't see
this type of technology in use with the police forces and emergency
services because it simply costs too much.

Called The Excalibur System, Hunter's Pinnacle Labs software is unique
in that it is one stop shopping for emergency communications. One
screen, one touch and everything a person needs is in front of them,
from location to emergency information, and even provides for encrypted
queries to law enforcement's most sensitive criminal data bases.
Excalibur is on the cutting edge of emergency mobile communications
technology, Hunter said. Departments in New Orleans and Little Rock
already rely on Excalibur.

As far as White County goes, Hunter said that what he gets out of the
deal, next to knowing he is doing a good thing, is that he can hold
Searcy and White County up as an example for what smaller departments
can accomplish with Excalibur.
Searcy has 14 vehicles outfitted with Excalibur, Hunter said, and they
expect to have several more by next week's end.
White County was installing Excalibur in vehicles Friday and planned to
have them in operation by next week, Major Kyle Stokes of the Sheriff's
Department said.

Published Saturday, May 15, 2004

www.thedailycitizen.com/ articles/2004/05/17/news/news05.txt

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