Survey of Police Radio
By Rod Deluhery
A survey was done of 152 small and rural police and sheriff agencies in all 50
states. The survey asked the organizations what technology they had and what
they didn’t have.
Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which different types of voice
communications technology are available to their agencies. Responses were as
follows:
All Some Personnel
Mobile radios 6.5% 3.5%
Mobile phones 54.1% 38.8%
WiFi 7.5% 11.3%
Satellite phones ---- 9.6%
Voice over IP 2.4% 6.1%
Where I come from, in a large police agency, every officer has a mobile radio
(walkie-talkie). But looking at these numbers for small county agencies shows that
many DO NOT have mobile radios. It is an interesting case for more services over
commercial mobile phones, where a convergence of technology is ready.
Convergence of web services, trunked radio, and other rich media services can be
delivered over existing commercial cellular phones. Modern cellular phones can
provide map services, web services, connections to other voice systems, and
any other internal network system.
Mobile phone to LMR (land mobile radio)
The numbers show that most field personal have a mobile phone, but DO NOT
have a mobile radio. What problems does this present? What options are available
to improve functionality? There are telephone to LMR gateways available. These
allow a cell phone user or regular phone to call into a dial in system, type a code
representing what talk group, and be able to listen in to the radio conversation.
Some gateways also allow the phone user to talk and listen to the radio system.
This doesn’t work as well as you would think, as phone service is a full duplex
device, and radio systems are usually half duplex and you have to “key up” to
transmit. It is the nature of the beast with trunked radio.
Some agencies only allow telephones to interact with the LMR by way of an
operator. Meaning the person has to call dispatch, request a line, and the operator
at dispatch will allow them to listen in or talk on the radio system. Some other
agencies will just do the work for them, and basically pass the message to the
radio, which could be a simple call to a unit to call the Captain on his cell phone.
Cellphones with data capabilities.
A common device that provides data and voice is the Blackberry handheld.
Blackberry phones are an interesting example of convergence. With a blackberry
enabled phone, all data and web communications start INSIDE the corporate
network. That means internal resources and websites are AUTOMATICALLY
available to blackberry web users, via the Intranet blackberry server. The
blackberry server relays all data from the provider radio network into the internal
network. A very valuable asset!
At the city I work at, blackberry’s are used to browse the inside phone web
directory page, ping devices inside the network, and many other unique functions.
At this shop they also use a computer aided dispatch program called Versaterm.
Computer aided dispatch is usually called “CAD”, and the vendor is now gearing
up to have a small version of the program that will work as a Java applet on
Blackberrys! Having some CAD functionality on a blackberry device is very handy
for the officer on the street who walks or bicycles.
The take away lesson from this:
Information is being delivered into many new devices and that give the public
safety person more options for mobility. When deciding the purchase of pagers,
cell phone technology or other devices, keep in mind what future functionality
people will be requesting.
Land mobile radio technology is changing to allow more VOIP and telephone
interaction with the radio network. Such gateways between radio and telephone
systems are usually affordable and worth their price in improved communications.
Copyright OP911.Net, R. Deluhery
By Rod Deluhery
A survey was done of 152 small and rural police and sheriff agencies in all 50
states. The survey asked the organizations what technology they had and what
they didn’t have.
Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which different types of voice
communications technology are available to their agencies. Responses were as
follows:
All Some Personnel
Mobile radios 6.5% 3.5%
Mobile phones 54.1% 38.8%
WiFi 7.5% 11.3%
Satellite phones ---- 9.6%
Voice over IP 2.4% 6.1%
Where I come from, in a large police agency, every officer has a mobile radio
(walkie-talkie). But looking at these numbers for small county agencies shows that
many DO NOT have mobile radios. It is an interesting case for more services over
commercial mobile phones, where a convergence of technology is ready.
Convergence of web services, trunked radio, and other rich media services can be
delivered over existing commercial cellular phones. Modern cellular phones can
provide map services, web services, connections to other voice systems, and
any other internal network system.
Mobile phone to LMR (land mobile radio)
The numbers show that most field personal have a mobile phone, but DO NOT
have a mobile radio. What problems does this present? What options are available
to improve functionality? There are telephone to LMR gateways available. These
allow a cell phone user or regular phone to call into a dial in system, type a code
representing what talk group, and be able to listen in to the radio conversation.
Some gateways also allow the phone user to talk and listen to the radio system.
This doesn’t work as well as you would think, as phone service is a full duplex
device, and radio systems are usually half duplex and you have to “key up” to
transmit. It is the nature of the beast with trunked radio.
Some agencies only allow telephones to interact with the LMR by way of an
operator. Meaning the person has to call dispatch, request a line, and the operator
at dispatch will allow them to listen in or talk on the radio system. Some other
agencies will just do the work for them, and basically pass the message to the
radio, which could be a simple call to a unit to call the Captain on his cell phone.
Cellphones with data capabilities.
A common device that provides data and voice is the Blackberry handheld.
Blackberry phones are an interesting example of convergence. With a blackberry
enabled phone, all data and web communications start INSIDE the corporate
network. That means internal resources and websites are AUTOMATICALLY
available to blackberry web users, via the Intranet blackberry server. The
blackberry server relays all data from the provider radio network into the internal
network. A very valuable asset!
At the city I work at, blackberry’s are used to browse the inside phone web
directory page, ping devices inside the network, and many other unique functions.
At this shop they also use a computer aided dispatch program called Versaterm.
Computer aided dispatch is usually called “CAD”, and the vendor is now gearing
up to have a small version of the program that will work as a Java applet on
Blackberrys! Having some CAD functionality on a blackberry device is very handy
for the officer on the street who walks or bicycles.
The take away lesson from this:
Information is being delivered into many new devices and that give the public
safety person more options for mobility. When deciding the purchase of pagers,
cell phone technology or other devices, keep in mind what future functionality
people will be requesting.
Land mobile radio technology is changing to allow more VOIP and telephone
interaction with the radio network. Such gateways between radio and telephone
systems are usually affordable and worth their price in improved communications.
Copyright OP911.Net, R. Deluhery
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