Police, Sheriff Install Mobile Tracking Devices
In Arkansas, the White County Sheriff’s Department and the Searcy Police Department have obtained new technology called the Excalibur System from Pinnacle Labs for tracking vehicles from anywhere in the county. Users can also securely access information from criminal databases and other sources.
Several police vehicles have been recently equipped with ultra-thin touch-screen displays that allow officers to communicate with dispatchers and access data. The new technology could also serve as the basis for a merged 9-1-1 system featuring cross-department collaboration, envisions White County Sheriff Pat Garrett. He says when an emergency call comes in, “the information immediately pops up on the screens of the units and dispatch,” so both patrollers and dispatchers are aware of the caller’s address and condition. And he notes, “you don’t have to guess where an officer is when an emergency call comes.”
Garrett says the new system is being donated by Jerry Hunter, owner of Pinnacle Labs Mobile Technology of Little Rock, who grew up in Searcy. Fourteen vehicles have already been equipped with the system, and several more are to be similarly equipped by the end of the week, says Hunter.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Daily Citizen (05/15/04); Holsinger, Philip .
