Mobile Data Applications for Security Patrol

[N. A. Corbier]

We're (By we, mainly I, as Managing Director) are discussing deploying mobile data solutions for patrol vehicles. We are a private security company, (Wisconsin calls them security or private police, we use private police as a selling point), and are planning out our mobile patrol service.

The nature of the contracts requires information management, such as paperless reporting system, subject/suspect/event databases, etc. That stuff we can do, being an arm of an IT company.

Now, I can look for Motorola MDCs or MDTs, and emulate the police, or, I can go another route, and use cheap laptops with cellular modems, or nextel iDEN modems.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with MDC use in private security, where part of the contractual goals include protecting life and property. So far, the only information I know about second hand is Critical Intervention Services of Clearwater, FL, but their info a PR.

[Charger]

The agency I used to work for in Portland, OR used laptops in all the cars, however they were set up on a wireless network type connection... Long story short, at the beginning of a shift, Officers would move their car to the 'office salley port', and initiate a download from the server to get any/all updated client info for the day... We would go about our patrols, entering all logs & reports in the laptop... at the end of shift, we would pull back into the port, and upload our new data to the server...
The server was set up so that each morning when all the Officers had uploaded their info, it would automatically fax the logs/reports to clients who had requested it, and print the ones for those who wanted them mailed... saved a LOT on paperwork for the office, for us Officers, and for the clients...
The laptops were just regular Dell models, with a wireless network PCMCIA card... The software, however, was a proprietary program written by one of the employees, in MS Access... One version for the MDT's, one for the Office to update client data, and one version for dispatch to handle their work. (If I remember correctly, dispatch handled their data transfers with the office via an internet transfer)
Granted it wasn't a constant connection, so Officers couldn't send private msg's to eachother's screens, but it was EXTREMELY helpful to everyone involved, and there wasn't a single Officer there who didn't LOVE the fact that we were paperless

If you have any other questions about it, let me know... hope this helps