Mobile Printing Solutions For Law Enforcement
Law enforcement agencies need on-site, portable printers for a variety of uses, including printing traffic citations, police bulletins, or barcodes for labeling evidence at crime scenes.
Agencies can use three types of printers–full size, small document, and value-added.
Pentax Technologies in Broomfield, Colo., offers two full size portable printers, PocketJet II and the PocketJet 200, which employ thermal printing without the need for inks or dyes. The PocketJet II features 300-dpi printing that allows mapping and other graphics-related applications, while the PocketJet 200 model provides printing in conjunction with a PDA or laptop and features IrDA, USB, serial, parallel, and Bluetooth connectivity.
Small document printers include those made by Zebra Technologies, which are suited for particular jobs, says Bob Danahy, the firm’s marketing director for mobile printers. “The Seattle Police Department used the Cameo for parking enforcement,” he says, while other agencies use the TR220 model for use with barcode/magnetic stripe readers and for accessing data from Symbol PDAs.
Value-added printers are those which are customized as needed for clients’ use, according to Symbol Technologies’ Jerry Tarrant. For example, the firm has worked with O’Neil to develop a printer that uses 4-inch-wide citation paper, which is now mandatory in many cities, says Mike Shlasko, director of Symbol’s municipal government vertical market.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from Law Enforcement Technology (06/03) Vol. 30, No. 6, P. 68; Miller, Christa.