Case Study: Smartphones, Web-Based Software Mobilize Law Enforcement Data

By Brian Albright, Field Technologies magazine

The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is pursuing new community policing strategies to help prevent crime and to improve the department's relationship with citizens. Community outreach efforts are a top priority, and one aspect of this initiative has been to extend foot patrols to increase community interaction.

The problem with foot patrols, however, is that officers have traditionally lacked immediate access to key data they need in the field. If an officer needed to run a license plate, verify an ID, or request a description of a suspect, they would either need to return to their patrol car to access that information on a laptop or radio a dispatcher to retrieve it for them.