WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY AIDS STING OPERATION
After a recent string of thefts, the New Jersey State Police were successful in recruiting an informant within the group of thieves. The police needed a way to track the informant, but using a traditional wireless emitting transceiver was too risky. Instead, when the time was right, the police inserted Bulldog Technologies' MiniBOSS wireless tracking device in the informant's jacket. Through the device, the police were able to safely track the exact location of the gang as they made their way from New Jersey to Connecticut. The gang of thieves was constantly monitored — even when they were inside a warehouse. The thieves were in the midst of loading stolen goods into a previously stolen delivery truck when they were apprehended without incident by the Connecticut State Police and the South Windsor (CT) Police Department.
SLEEP/WAKE MODE IS KEY TO AGPS SUCCESS
The MiniBOSS is a portable (4 inches by 3 inches by 2 inches) device that weighs 6 ounces and is housed in a durable case. The device is a cellular-based AGPS (assisted global positioning system) unit that can be used for asset tracking, monitoring, and recovery and is designed to work in conjunction with Bulldog Technologies' Security Gateway. The Security Gateway is a proprietary automatic vehicle location (AVL) software program that enables users to securely track the MiniBOSS through a standard PC.
The MiniBOSS' sleep/wake feature is particularly useful for sting operations (and any battery-intensive supply chain uses such as long-term storage), which sometimes involve an informant being scanned for such wireless-emitting devices. The MiniBOSS device remains dormant until activated remotely via the Bulldog Security Gateway. Upon activation, it updates the Gateway's mapping engine and provides a real-time position of the asset. The mapping engine can be manually updated or configured to automatically update the device's movement.
MiniBOSS' AGPS platform provides it with a signal reception sensitivity 20 decibels higher than traditional GPS platforms. Plus, AGPS uses cellular tower triangulation in conjunction with GPS satellite location to provide position location capabilities in impaired RF (radio frequency) environments. The increased functionality enables the MiniBOSS to work in environments where traditional GPS solutions cannot. The MiniBOSS does not need to see the sky to determine location like a traditional GPS system, and no external antenna is necessary, which means the device can transmit and determine accurate positions inside steel containers, trailers, warehouses, parking garages, and buildings.