Cook County Goes All Wireless with IBM

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: November 2, 2005 6:38:16 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Cook County Goes All Wireless with IBM
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

Cook County Goes All Wireless with IBM

By Karen Brown
November 1, 2005
<http://www.wirelessweek.com/toc-newsat2direct/11/01/05?starting=5>

Cook County, Ill., is among the local governments jumping on the  
wireless bandwagon in a big way - in fact, it may well be the first  
county in the United States to go all wireless for its public safety  
communications system with help from IBM.

The suburban Chicago county has tapped IBM Global Services technology  
and systems to build a wireless government communications system that  
covers the county and all of its 128 municipalities.

"Their desire was to be the first wireless county in the country, and  
I believe that is the case," says Diana Hage, director of wireless  
services at IBM.

The project calls for emergency response vehicles to be equipped with  
wireless communication radios, cameras, digital video recorders and  
laptops. Perhaps more importantly, it also gives officers in the  
various jurisdictions a common system to communicate during larger  
emergency incidents. Initially 80 patrol cars will be outfitted with  
the wireless connections and video cameras.

Modules built into the cars will support multiple radio connections  
including cellular and Wi-Fi radios. When officers are on the road  
and the cellular communications grid is lost, the module will search  
for alternative Wi-Fi or other network connections. Separate access  
devices mounted in the car also will supply iDEN-based walkie-talkie  
communications.

Setting up a wireless scheme lessens the probability that the vital  
communications link will be severed during a major man-made or  
natural disaster. But Cook County also is looking at the systems as a  
means to move toward video policing, Hage says.

Mounting video cameras on patrol cars "gives them more visibility -  
what they call more eyes on the street," she notes.

The video capability is just one way - the wireless system installed  
in the patrol cars can also display video and graphics, including  
maps of surrounding neighborhoods and pictures of suspects being  
sought for arrest. Pole-mounted video cameras in the community also  
give police officers a bird's-eye view of the area.

Other local government agencies are looking at similar schemes.  
Industrywide, 99 communities have implemented these newer, more  
sophisticated public safety communications systems, and about 199  
other communities are planning to deploy them in the next year. Six  
to 10 such communities have recently contacted IBM, and overall the  
market is "raining RFIs or RFPs, and municipalities are looking to  
leverage the grant money form the Department of Homeland Security to  
get these networks in place," Hage says.

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/