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Tog or tool?
<br />
<br />PDA into his daily patrol routine.
<br />Officer Bill Cather with the
<br />Metropolitan Airports Authority Police
<br />at Reagan National Airport, has pur-
<br />chased his own Handspring Visor
<br />Deluxe, which he taps all his reports
<br />into, then syncs with his computer at
<br />home each night. He cuts and pastes
<br />into departmental incident reports at the
<br />station the next day. "No cop likes to
<br />write. I found it easier to do," he
<br />explains.
<br /> Using a Stowaway keyboard from
<br />Carlsbad, California-based Think
<br />Outside, which actually folds to about
<br />the size of a PDA, Cather writes sum-
<br />maries of all his tickets, including
<br />defendant's name, violation, etc., and
<br />connects it to the court date. He notes
<br />that it's so much easier than writing in
<br />"graffiti" (the type of symbols hand-
<br />helds accept with a stylus). "On the
<br />court date all I have to do is print it out
<br />and testify i~om the printout. No more
<br />
<br />fumbling through all the papers in
<br />court," he says.
<br /> In his job at the airport, Cather often
<br />runs into limo drivers loitering.
<br />"Sometimes when I get to court [and
<br />
<br />"Alii have to do is
<br />print it Out and testify
<br />from the printout."
<br />
<br /> --Bill Cather,
<br />Metropolitan Airports Authority Police
<br />
<br />hear their version of the story], I won-
<br />der: 'Am I at the same traffic stop?'"
<br />he says. To combat this he's got a tiny
<br />2x3-inch digital camera called the
<br />Eyemodule 2 from Blocks Products
<br />that he can capture black-and-white
<br />stills with, annotate it with text, and
<br />date and time stamp it. He can print it
<br />
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<br />out in color on his home printer. }
<br />also has a digital audio recorder th
<br />capture~ conversations in full, which l
<br />sometimes uses for traffic stops a:
<br />meetings. He can download the recor
<br />ing in a WAV file on his home compr
<br />er and listen to it the day before a cot
<br />date as a refresher.
<br /> He's also thinking of purchasi~
<br />a C-Pen, a small pen-like attachmex
<br />from the Swedish compa[
<br />C Technologies, that can scan and ew
<br />translate foreign language documen
<br />into a Visor or Palm device. Right ne
<br />he's hoping PDAs will one day be sm
<br />dard issue at his department.
<br /> The Boca Raton Police Servic,
<br />DePartment in Florida is nearly rea~
<br />to implement about 30 units that w
<br />go to its motorcycle and bike patr
<br />officers, according to Assistant Chi
<br />Bob Daniels. They'd also like to utili:
<br />the units for investigators 'in the futm
<br />using it to do computer records creel
<br />of driver's licenses.
<br /> Daniels says he'd like to be able
<br />print traffic citations in the vehicle wi
<br />use of either the magnetic stripe cu
<br />rently printed on Florida's driv
<br />licenses or at least print parking ticke
<br />from the VIN numbers barcoded (
<br />vehicles. However, at present, tl
<br />Florida Department of Highway Safe
<br />and Motor Vehicles has not decide
<br />which technology they will empl{
<br />permanently on the licenses.
<br /> In fact, the departments of mot.
<br />vehicles around the. country have go]
<br />both ways. Because tourism is so bi
<br />especially in southern Florida, '%
<br />need to find a mesh of systems
<br />Daniels says. With so many out-c
<br />state drivers, they see many of bo
<br />magnetic card stripes and barcode
<br />"To utilize both is our ultimate goal
<br />he Says. The department is conside~
<br />a Casio that is mggedized and mark{
<br />ed to government agencies throul
<br />Comark Corporation, a Lake Wale
<br />Florida, fn-m. It sells for about $1,000
<br /> Daniels thinks PDAs are going to 1
<br />seen in law enforcement with a 1
<br />more frequency. He visualizes PDt
<br />Working for SWAT' teams, where di[
<br />tized floor plans of a university camp
<br />could be uploaded in a command po:
<br />
<br />112 Law Enforcement Technology · July 2001
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