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Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD)
lasd.org
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) is the largest sheriff’s department in the US and operates on a budget of $2.5 billion per year. LASD is the largest contract policing agency in the US, patrolling 40 of Los Angeles County’s 88 cities, as well as 90 unincorporated county areas. LASD has eleven divisions and three patrol divisions and has every specialized unit a U.S. law enforcement agency can use. LASD also provides court security, bailiffs, lock-up, judicial process service and enforcement for the Superior Court of Los Angeles, the largest county court system in the country.
The Advanced Surveillance and Protection Unit (ASAP), which is part of the Technical Services Division of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was created to bring new and emerging surveillance and apprehension technologies to the Department, while developing a standard for these technologies. ASAP’s purpose is to strengthen the safety and effectiveness of all law enforcement personnel.
To effectively serve this large community, ASAP needed to implement new automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology. The challenge of the ALPR implementation was to find a reliable wireless router that would provide a secure seamless connection to LASD’s internal network without any deputy intervention. This connection would access the ALPR processor in the vehicle by transmitting and receiving data from the ALPR server located in LASD’s network.
LASD’s ALPR processors would be mounted in patrol vehicles and 3-4 video cameras would be mounted on each vehicle roof. ALPR would capture licence plates when they came into view and plates would then be compared to the ALPR database located in the processor. If a licence plate had a WANT, an audible tone would sound for the officer and display the WANT on the monitor in the cabin of the patrol vehicle.
To augment LASD’s private network, they also used commercial cellular services and needed a single mobile network solution that would enable:
Due to the success of the AirLink Solution, this is now a standard component for our ALPR systems installed in patrol vehicles that are equipped with mobile digital terminals.
Deputy Richard Miller
Advanced Surveillance and Protection Unit,
Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department
The Advanced Surveillance and Protection Unit (ASAP) researched and tested several modems and routers and was referred by other law enforcement agencies and their IT department to Sierra Wireless. ASAP installed and tested the router in a demonstration ALPR vehicle over a twenty month period. Once the deputy got in the patrol vehicle and turned on the engine, the router booted up automatically and immediately established a Wi-Fi connection with an access point located at the sheriff’s station.
As the vehicle was equipped with an aircard, once the patrol vehicle left the operational range of the Wi-Fi signal, the router automatically switched over to the aircard and maintained a constant connection to the ALPR server. In turn, the device would seamlessly switch back to the Wi-Fi connection once back in the station area.
Licence plate information is transmitted and received instantaneously and reliably. Network congestion, dead zones and bandwidth limitations no longer hinder communications. The router provides secure, worry-free connectivity for communications equipment and requires no deputy intervention, which is key. ASAP is extremely pleased with the results, as the device installed easily, was easy to configure and it simply worked!
Since deploying the AirLink Solution, ASAP has seen significant improvements in mobile ALPR communications and operations.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD)
NAM
First Responders
Public Safety
AirLink Routers MG90
GX Series
AirLink Management Service
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