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Cops to talk, gear to obey
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
By JARRETT RENSHAW
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
David Hasselhoff isn't the only crimefighter who talks to his car.
The Jersey City Police Department, perhaps taking a cue from the "Knight Rider" television show, will become the first in the state to install voice-activated technology in its 130 patrol cars.
Instead of flipping a switch to turn their pursuit lights on, officers will instead say, "Lights on!" When in a chase, officers will be able to speak a license plate number and the cruiser's on-board computer will reply with information about open warrants or prior arrests.
"It will increase safety for officers and make their work more efficient," says police systems administrator and police officer John Tkaczyc.
"The future is now," said Richard Picolli, president of the company Info-Cop, which along with the University of New Hampshire is helping the Police Department install the equipment. "The police car will act like an office and everything will be just words away."
The voice-activated technology is part of a $15 million communications upgrade of the city's Police Department that began about two years ago when the department started equipping its vehicles with computers and its officers with hand-held computers.
More than 300 municipalities and agencies in the Garden State use various types of handheld or in-car computers to share and access information, but none have the voice-activated upgrade designed by the University of New Hampshire through a federal grant, Jersey City officials said.
The voice-activated equipment will join other new police gadgets, such as credit-card type swiping machines used with driver's licenses, as well as one device that acts as a scanner, camera, cell phone, walkie-talkie and personal data assistant.
Police officials didn't offer a timeline for when the upgrade would be complete.
JARRETT RENSHAW can be reached at [email protected].
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
By JARRETT RENSHAW
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
David Hasselhoff isn't the only crimefighter who talks to his car.
The Jersey City Police Department, perhaps taking a cue from the "Knight Rider" television show, will become the first in the state to install voice-activated technology in its 130 patrol cars.
Instead of flipping a switch to turn their pursuit lights on, officers will instead say, "Lights on!" When in a chase, officers will be able to speak a license plate number and the cruiser's on-board computer will reply with information about open warrants or prior arrests.
"It will increase safety for officers and make their work more efficient," says police systems administrator and police officer John Tkaczyc.
"The future is now," said Richard Picolli, president of the company Info-Cop, which along with the University of New Hampshire is helping the Police Department install the equipment. "The police car will act like an office and everything will be just words away."
The voice-activated technology is part of a $15 million communications upgrade of the city's Police Department that began about two years ago when the department started equipping its vehicles with computers and its officers with hand-held computers.
More than 300 municipalities and agencies in the Garden State use various types of handheld or in-car computers to share and access information, but none have the voice-activated upgrade designed by the University of New Hampshire through a federal grant, Jersey City officials said.
The voice-activated equipment will join other new police gadgets, such as credit-card type swiping machines used with driver's licenses, as well as one device that acts as a scanner, camera, cell phone, walkie-talkie and personal data assistant.
Police officials didn't offer a timeline for when the upgrade would be complete.
JARRETT RENSHAW can be reached at [email protected].
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