ATLANTA-Cingular Wireless and The U.S. Army announced a computer-aided dispatch solution enabled for Cingular’s nationwide wireless data network that allows the military and civilian police officers at Fort Hood in Texas to access incident information on wireless rugged laptops mounted in their patrol vehicles.
The Cingular solution gives officers fast access to state and federal databases during traffic stops and other patrol situations. Previously, dispatchers at headquarters checked criminal databases and then passed along the information to officers via radio transmissions, which were often delayed and garbled.
The GPRS implementation gives officers direct access to information for quick response to emergencies and the ability to rapidly assess situations. The U.S. Army said the wirelessly enabled solution has allowed Fort Hood Police to cut response times by better than half.
“Our radio system was so antiquated,” said Capt. Gary White of the Fort Hood Police patrol branch. “We had to share the system with everyone on the installation. And much of the information we communicated over the radio is sensitive. So we chose the computer-aided dispatch system to cut down on radio traffic and to protect the confidential nature of our business.”
