GPS,
Police Corruption and Public Safety
In Juarez City Mexico, LinksPoint's
GPS technology is helping combat the costly
problem of police corruption – while making the
streets safer for people and cars alike
I like to talk about how GPS can save fuel costs
and increase productivity, but there are few
solutions that deliver the range of benefits as
the mobile application deployed by the Juarez City Police
Department.
The story starts
out with the city's desire to use GPS to better
document the activities of officers in the field
to help stamp out corruption. When citizens were
detained for traffic violations, police officers
would often ask for cash payments in lieu of
issuing tickets. Department officials believed
that a system that would allow them to track the
whereabouts of officers would put an end to this
practice. To help solve the problem, they turned
to LinksPoint partner iData (www.idataw.com).
iData combined its handheld computer based iPatrol software platform with LinksPoint's GPS
technology to deliver a solution that not only
automated many of the officer's tasks, but also
provided the location tracking that officials
desired.
 Law
enforcement officers in Juarez City are now
equipped with wireless handheld computers and
LinksPoint’s GlobalPoint GPS receivers. During
traffic stops, officers use the GPRS wireless
device to transmit their exact GPS location to
the dispatch center, where stop locations and
durations can be monitored.
GPS technology also supports more effective
command and control as law enforcement officer
locations are tracked via GPS. This ensures
better coverage of each sector and enables
location-based dispatch for police and medical
teams responding to emergencies. The solution
also provides wireless access to a vehicle
information database, a national list of stolen
vehicles and a database of unpaid traffic
tickets.
The benefits have
included a significantly greater ability to weed
out corrupt officers, and potentially more
important, a decrease in police response times
to emergency. And since the solution allows
officers to collect official traffic fines and
delinquent tickets in the field, the city has
recouped millions in traffic fines.
You can read more
about this great solution in LinksPoint's
case study.
Mike Forbes
LinksPoint, Vice President
Marketing & Product Development
Additional
Links:
|
Good
News/Bad News
