NCJ Number
199638
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 30 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2003 Pages: 70,72,75
Date Published
March 2003
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes the features and uses of the Baltimore Police Department's (Maryland) 45-foot mobile command center vehicle, which allows the location of the department's central command anywhere in the city.
Abstract
The product of a collaboration between Allied Research's microwave security firm, NS Microwave, and LDV (a specialty vehicle manufacturer in Burlington, WI, this vehicle is an AWACS on wheels the size of a high-end Winnebago. This vehicle not only can act as a mobile police station, it is equipped with a state-of-the-art conference room outfitted with video screens that can be used to monitor surveillance cameras seeded all over the city. The department now has the capability of monitoring the city for potential terrorism, suspicious activities, and crime with stealth cameras located atop buildings and hidden inside traffic lights, orange traffic cones, fake parking meters, hollow gas meters, and transformers on power poles. Privacy concerns have been expressed by some, but the police argue that the video surveillance helps prevent crime in public spaces, where there is no expectation of privacy. Still, privacy advocates favor legislation and procedural guidelines that govern the uses, sharing, and retention of video surveillance images. The vehicle is equipped with various communications systems attached to multiple 58-foot masts that can simultaneously service as many as 16 covert cameras. It also has cameras on the masts, which can be useful in gaining close proximity to a disaster. Officers in the mobile vehicle have access to external intelligence, including links to Federal databases, and they can simultaneously communicate with all outside stations from any location in the city. The command center also has the ability to relay data and images obtained in the field back to police headquarters, giving command-level management the ability to make informed decisions. Thus far, the mobile vehicle has been used effectively in police action against public drug markets.