Consolidated Advanced Technologies for Law Enforcement

PROJECT SUMMARY FOR 2001-LT-BX-K010

The Consolidated Advanced Technologies (CAT) for Law Enforcement program is a collaborative effort between the University of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Department of Safety (NHDS). The CAT program was initiated in August 1999 (DOJ-BJA Award #DD-BX-0082). This proposal is a request to continue the program for a third year. This program addresses problems related to the ability of law enforcement agencies to seamlessly collect, interpret, and exchange information in real time through the use of police mobile electronic devices and network communications. The emphasis of the CAT program is on promoting and developing solutions which utilize open standards and interfaces at the device and application levels to maximize portability, compatibility and flexibility of the resulting systems.

The objectives for the third program year include: 1) the development, evaluation, demonstration, and deployment of highly integrated hardware and software system for law enforcement vehicles; 2) basic technology studies of VHF radio signal strengths, collect and analyze audio noise in vehicles under diverse conditions, analyze and compare audio technologies for use in vehicles, and analyze video equipment trade-offs for compression, storage, and data management characteristics; 3) the development of interactive web-based technical training materials for public safety applications; 4) the deployment of application ready technologies, such as the Law Records Management system or a Computer Aided Dispatch system, to New Hampshire Department of Safety agencies; and 5) to expand the Justice System Interoperability (Justiceworks) program to address organizational, structural, and behavioral changes that will be necessary in law enforcement to successfully incorporate technologies in the field.