Public safety and law enforcement officials need to reduce crime and create safer communities in a cost-effective manner and are investigating how technology can assist this process.
Key benefits and cost savings are likely to be most visible in the area of evidence gathering capabilities to improve prosecution success rates. With limited resources, evidence often is not captured or degrades before dedicated evidence-gathering officers can be deployed.
Giving frontline officers the capability to capture evidential images at the scene of a crime or incident has been shown to reduce the time spent in court and increase conviction rates.
With this in mind, Motorola Solutions, Inc., today launches the world’s first mission-critical imaging solution for frontline officers. This is a combination of the new MTP6750 Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) handheld radio featuring an integrated five megapixel camera and the Photograph and Intelligence Communications System (PICS) image management solution.
Through PICS, images captured on the MTP6750 can be managed, authenticated and shared within a public safety organisation’s existing workflows, enabling verification of captured images at any point and reducing the chance of evidence being deemed unusable in a prosecution.
Key facts:
* This is the first TETRA radio to integrate a five megapixel digital camera into the same easy-to-use radio form factor for which Motorola’s TETRA handsets are known. Integrating image capture and processing capabilities into the radio platform ensures that common workflow processes are enforced and images come under the security protocols of the agency.
* A large QVGA colour display allows officers to view images with a single glance.
* Built on the newly launched MTP6000 Radio Series platform, the new TETRA handheld enables a wide range of data connectivity options, including integrated Bluetooth®, Multi-Slot Packet Data and support for TETRA Enhanced Data Services (TEDS). This enables frontline personnel to share text messages and images reliably, securely and quickly.
* The integrated WAP browser with WAP Push capability allows the user to access information sources such as databases and view images on the large screen and for images to be pushed directly to the user, rapidly sharing valuable intelligence.
* The MTP6750 offers an integrated Direct-Mode Repeater. Working range can be further extended by up to 14% through the radio’s Class 3L (1,8W) transmit power capability and best-in-class receiver sensitivity.
* The image software is intuitive. Users can be confident that common workflow processes are enforced and images come under the security protocols of the agency.
* Always in the hands of front line officers, the new TETRA handheld with integrated camera functionality offers them the ability to take images without the need for additional devices.
* PICS covers three key areas – Integrated Terminal Management (iTM), Indelible Digital Marking and Application Programming Interface (API).
* iTM allows a fleet of radios to be managed remotely from a central location, including image back-up and software updates. It enables shift leaders and dispatch to push images to any number of officers’ radios whilst they are charging. Briefing notes can be attached to images, allowing shift leaders to provide them directly to officers’ radios instead of carrying paper documents.
* Indelible Digital Marking is designed to verify that images have not been tampered before being used in law courts. Images captures include metadata such as time and date, location, user ID and more.
* iTM allows the user to validate the image – if any element of the image or its metadata has been changed since it was captured, validation fails. This ensures that the integrity of the evidence can be checked through the chain of custody so that it can be presented as evidence for any prosecution.
* Finally, the iTM API allows Motorola and its partners to integrate PICS into organisations’ existing systems and processes, or to develop further applications tailored to the needs of public safety and other end-user organisations.
“We conducted an extensive research programme with public safety agencies in many regions around the world to shape our next-generation TETRA solutions. In interviews, officers repeatedly told us that viewing images while mobile and being able to take images at incident scenes offers major benefits,” says Tom Quirke, VP and GM, Global TETRA Organisation, Motorola Solutions.
“It saves time. It significantly enhances day-to-day policing. And, it vastly improves evidence collection. To answer their needs, we developed the MTP6750 handheld radio.
“It is the first TETRA handheld with an integrated five megapixel camera for image capture and an image management system. It is designed to fit perfectly into the workflows of public safety organisations such a policing, and we are convinced that this is the image management system for which users and agencies have been waiting.”
