New Wireless Network –

In The Field, The Police Data Stream Keeps Flowing

By Andrew Gorosko

Sitting in a police cruiser with so many radio antennas that it vaguely resembles a porcupine, a patrol spots a shiny new Cadillac DeVille that has a damaged rear marker plate mounted askew on the vehicle.

Seizing the initiative to learn more about what appears to be a suspicious vehicle, the officer turns on the police car’s laptop computer, calls up the appropriate software, and types in the Cadillac’s marker plate number. The request for electronic text data is transmitted from the police car to the police station via a wireless modem, and then relayed to a statewide computer database, which holds voluminous motor vehicle records.

The electronic records check indicates that the plates on the Cadillac have been stolen and actually belong on a Ford truck. That textual information is relayed to the officer’s police car and appears on his laptop computer screen.

The officer thus has stealthily learned that it is time to physically investigate the situation, without having had to utter a word on police radio, possibly tipping off the Cadillac’s driver, if that driver is listening to police voice radio frequencies on a police scanner.

A scenario like the one above may well occur in the near future, as town police continue installing electronic hardware in eight patrol cars to form a wireless data network geared to crime fighting and the apprehension of motor vehicle violators.

Although police have been using laptop computers in their patrol cars for months for report writing in the field, the computers have been “stand alone” devices, which were not able to communicate with other computers. With the ongoing installation of wireless modems in police cars, police will be able to connect to the Connecticut Online Law Enforcement Communications Teleprocessing network (COLLECT), and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) computer network.

The new secure computer networking arrangement allows town police in police cars to electronically communicate with crime and motor vehicle databases run by the Connecticut State Police, many municipal police departments in Connecticut, the state Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among others. There are about 60 municipal police departments in the state on the COLLECT network. The state Department of Correction (DOC) has a database of criminal identification photos available on the network.

The wireless network offers police in the field a measure of stealth and efficiency in directly retrieving information from motor vehicle and crime databases without the need for verbal communication on police frequencies, according to Patrol Officer Lou Ferreira.

“The nice part about this [computer network] is we’re not on the radio. People who have scanners can’t hear us,” Officer Ferreira said. Hardened criminals tend to use police scanners, he noted.

Officer Ferreira and Officer Richard Robinson are jointly overseeing installation of the police car-based computer network.

Although police have long had the capability of obtaining motor vehicle and crime information via electronic equipment inside the police station at 3 Main Street, the computer networking of police cars is a new feature of local law enforcement. The equipment inside the police station will still provide police with more information than they can obtain in police cars.  

The police car-based computers have “instant messaging” capabilities within their secure networks, allowing them to exchange textual data within the local network and with other law enforcement agencies.

Newtown is joining other police departments in the region which provide officers on patrol with the capability to directly retrieve information via computer networks, according to Police Chief Michael Kehoe. The communications system is based on secure digital cellular telephone technology. The digital networking system cost about $36,000, Chief Kehoe said.

“The information you see with your eyes makes a greater impression than what you hear,” Chief Kehoe said of the immediacy of textual information received on a computer compared to that same information verbally relayed to an officer on police radio by a dispatcher.

Eventually, officers on patrol in police cars may be able to tap in the police department’s in-house computer system in a “read only” mode, which would allow them to electronically review various locally generated police records in the field, Chief Kehoe said. Also, eventually, the police’s report writing capabilities in the field would be enhanced.

When fully implemented, the local police computer network will have ten elements, with its installation in eight police cars, the dispatch center, and the sergeants’ office. The network currently has three components.

The town’s combined dispatch center, which is now under construction in the police station, will be the hub of the new computer network.