Broadband Boosts Access, Mobility in Brookline

• NCJ Number: 231552
• Date Published: August 2010
• Length: 3 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Grant Number(s): 2009-MU-MU-K261
• Award: Operate the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC)

Annotation

This article describes Brookline, Massachusetts’ innovative broadband police network.

Abstract

A suburb of Boston, MA, Brookline houses the Nation’s only dual 2.4/4.9 GHz broadband network providing the police municipality with blanket coverage. With this network, there is essentially no difference between the capabilities of the desktop computers in the station and the laptops in the police cruisers. The new capabilities include real-time access to Brookline’s computer-aided dispatch system, and the network provides the ability to control video feeds, allowing the city to deploy mobile cameras in areas where there have been a number of incidents or where crowd control is needed. With 4.9 networks requiring many nodes to provide coverage, Brookline’s vendor has provided equipment that is deemed very efficient in terms of performance, as well as cost effective. This article presents an overview of this broadband network effectively utilized by the Brookline suburb of Boston.