Remote Control
Given the propensity of many police officers to ignore the check engine light on their dashboard, a number of agencies have turned toward technology that will monitor the condition of their cars remotely. Central oversight of public fleets of vehicles has become a popular way to ensure their longevity and compliance with environmental regulations.
Municipal governments have enlisted the help of systems such as Networkcar’s Networkfleet monitoring program and Accenture’s system that detects early problems in buses.
In Glendora, Calif., Networkfleet issues automatic alerts when a government vehicle’s smog emissions rise above the permissible level, which serves in lieu of the mandatory trip to the smog station every two years. A vehicle-tracking capability makes dispatching police officers easier and more efficient, and also imposes a degree of accountability otherwise absent in workers who now know they are being monitored.
Equipping each vehicle costs about $500, with an additional $20 per vehicle paid each month for the service. The city has not conducted a detailed cost analysis, though it is generally agreed that the early detection of vehicle malfunctions, increased efficiency, and avoiding trips to smog stations yield a considerable savings.
In St. Louis, Accenture’s monitoring system not only detects engine problems as they occur, but in many cases actually predicts future malfunctions by transmitting data from on-board sensors via satellite to users monitoring the fleet remotely.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from Government Technology (08/05) Vol. 18, No. 8, P. 50; Douglas, Merrill.