Florida County to Deploy New Mobile Crime Lab from LDV
LDV announces that a mobile crime lab it designed and manufactured to be deployed on site at crime scenes was recently delivered to the Pinellas County, Florida, Sheriff's Office.

Purchased through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Urban Area Security Initiative, the vehicle will serve nine counties in central Florida: Citrus, Sumter, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Polk, Manatee, and Hardee counties. It will be primarily used for major cases, including weapons of mass destruction events, suspected terrorist attacks, and homicides.

Designed to help investigators identify and catalog evidence, the forensic investigation center features a cyanoacrylate fuming chamber with humidity, carbon filtering, and microprocessor controls. According to Sergeant Jim Bordner of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, the technology will allow fingerprints to be processed, photographed, and emailed on site for speedy identification. It should also reduce the chance of altering evidence by excessive handling and transportation.

The mobile crime lab is built on a 30,000pound GVWR Freightliner MT-55 chassis powered by a Cummins turbocharged diesel engine. It also features an Allison 2500EVS heavy-duty five-speed automatic transmission and an air-ride suspension. This system includes dual instant-response, rear-suspension leveling valves.

The communications features of the vehicle include three flat-screen monitors capable of receiving satellite, closed circuit, and regular television broadcasts. An expandable modulated system is designed to be able to route any audio-video source to any monitor via remote control and be recorded and played on any one of several DVD/VHS recorders/players. A color video printer is designed to freeze a frame from the monitor screens and print a color image comparable to a 35mm print.

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Detroit Relied on CompuDyne CAD System during Super Bowl
CompuDyne Corporation announces that while tens of thousands of fans and hundreds of millions of television viewers watched the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks compete in Super Bowl XL, the city of Detroit managed the increased call volume for public safety services using a computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system provided by CompuDyne Public Safety & Justice Inc. (formerly Tiburon Inc.).

The Detroit Police Department worked with more than 100 local, state, and federal agencies to ensure that Super Bowl XL was a safe experience for everyone. In addition to serving the public safety agencies of Detroit, the CompuDyne system also provided support to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to the company. Federal agencies were given access to the CAD data warehouse to receive real-time updates about all law enforcement events. Incident information was interfaced to an external system used by the Department of Homeland Security to provide a consolidated view of police, fire, and emergency medical activities to more than 400 public safety managers and coordinators at all levels of government.

The CAD system processed more than 6,280 calls for emergency service in the 24 hours surrounding Super Bowl XL. The city of Detroit deployed a special command post in the communication center to handle the increased call volume. The system allowed police to create a special routing code that signaled the system to reroute Super Bowl- related calls to the command post.

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Police Deployed Motorola Technology during Super Bowl in Detroit
Motorola Inc. announces that the city of Detroit deployed the company's event management solution, featuring the Motomesh multiple-radio broadband wireless network, to enhance public safety measures during Super Bowl XL. Detroit police watched real-time video surveillance using mesh-enabled cameras that are part of Motorola's Intelligent Video Surveillance and Control (iVSC) solution. Motomesh delivered seamless video connectivity over the newly allocated 4.9-gigahertz secure public safety band to police cars securing the perimeter of Ford Field, the site of the game.

The Motomesh network and iVSC solution allowed officers to pan across the crowd and zoom in and out while viewing live streaming video via mobile command posts utilizing ruggedized Motorola ML 900 laptop computers.

"With the stadium being in the heart of downtown Detroit, and not surrounded by parking lots like many other stadiums, we needed a solution that would boost officials' situational awareness at the entrances and exits to the grounds," said Derrick Miller, the city's chief information officer. "This solution allowed the officers to monitor a large area and population from their laptops while remaining in their dispatched areas."

In total, Super Bowl XL involved more than 10,000 safety officers from local, state, and federal agencies. The Motomesh network gave officers access to county criminal justice databases, remote digital reporting, multimedia e-mails, and other applications.   

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