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COVER STORY laptops. The product vLink is protected with a personal password and can be used from up to 300 feet away to control lights, siren and horn. It can also lock, unlock and open a door or hatch—is especially useful for K-9 officers. Code3 employees had run into wireless remote technology a few years back and they asked how else this technology could be used. "We had seen some people making remote spotlights and other remote key fobs for cars," explains Vice President of Emergency Business and Marketing Kelly Kyriakos, Code3 Inc. "We wondered if we could design something to be used in the public safety market." The product is unique because of the ability to use it with both Code3's equipment and competitors' equipment. "vLink can be used with any smart phone and can be configured however the department wants," says Kyriakos. It doesn't require an Internet connection due to its accompanying box which creates its own hotspot, a feature that makes it a desirable option for agencies struggling with Internet connection. "Any agency can use it no matter where they are located," explains Kyriakos. A number of agencies around the U.S. are trying out vLink, including Philadelphia Police Department, Oldham County (Kentucky) Sheriff's Office, Lagrange (Kentucky) Police Department and That's My Truck, a company in Des Moines (Iowa) which upfits commercial fleet vehicles, including patrol cars. ing Bill Switzer, video production manager for Applied Concepts when they started working with the Office of Naval Research and Navy Seals. The collaborators envisioned technology that could track each Seal's movements, stream video and provide GPS. "If you dropped them in Pakistan, you could see exactly where each one of them were in the compound and stream their video live from smartphone technology right off the shelf," says Switzer. Looking towards new uses, Stalker Radar recognized this technology could be adapted to the law enforcement market. "It can be used both for body armor and laptops in the car," he says. "You will know the GPS location of that car in real time and you could record an event onto the laptop or you could stream the video live so a police officer or command could see exactly what was going on when he was responding to a mission critical call." With CopTrax, any event can be programmed as a trigger to start the video, such as activating the light bar, exceeding a certain speed or keying the microphone. "Ninety-seven percent of all allegations where there is video attached, the police officer is found not guilty and exonerated so it is so important to protect officers' careers," Switzer explains. The GPS is an important safety feature as well. "It's important to be able to know where your officer is at any point in time," states Switzer. "We save lives. We save careers." But what about body worn? "In car video is great but I believe the two need to work in conjunction," says Switzer. CopTrax utilizes the Android smartphone which can be worn on an officer's chest. This is one of several body worn options that are currently on the market. Switzer thinks these are a good idea but believes the idea should be taken a step further. "Being placed on the officer's chest was less than ideal," he states. "The officer would be looking one way and their chest would be facing another way. You would have a lot of video not worth using. You wanted video from the officer's eye level so you're able to see exactly what the officer is seeing when you try to reconstruct an event." Once again, innovators went a step further. Enter Google Glass Google Glass has been the talk of law enforcement technology circles since its debut. One of its only hardware innovations, Google-owned Motorola created a lens-less eyeglass frame housing a computer. "We at Motorola want to solve problems customers have," explains Senior Marketing Do you see what I see? In-car video technology has been around for some time but it hasn't stopped evolving. CopTrax from Stalker Radar is far from the bulky recorder and grainy video of the past. CopTrax provides in-car and body worn technology with GPS tracking, automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology as well as live streaming video. Video can either be stored on a local on-site server or in the cloud utilizing Microsoft's Azure application. The idea for CopTrax came from three Stalker Radar employees, includ- Technology can be programmed to recognize triggering events, such as an officer pulling his or her weapon. www.officer.com January 2014 Law Enforcement Technology 15