Southern Police Department Expands Mobile Surveillance Capabilities With Sierra Wireless® Intelligent Gateways

With funding from the DNC federal security grant and an Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant, the CMPD was able to enhance their investment in automatic license plate recognition cameras and software from Sierra Wireless Solution Partner, NDI Recognition Systems (NDI-RS).

In total, the department increased their LPR technology to 89 fixed LPR cameras, four mobile systems, two portable Rapid Deployment System (RDS) units, and thirteen Road Warrior LPR trailers featuring the Sierra Wireless AirLink gateways for high performance, mission-critical cellular communication and GPS capabilities. 

“We evaluated a number of devices from other vendors before selecting the AirLink gateway,” explained Chris McKissick, NDI-RS’ director of sales for the US public safety market. “We’ve always has a strong relationship with Sierra Wireless, and the gateway was the most user-friendly device that we trialed. It best fit the requirements to fulfill the mission of our customers.”

The AirLink gateway’s rugged military spec design and water resistant aluminum casing enables it to withstand the extreme temperature changes, humidity, shock, and vibration found in mobile applications. Supporting the newest cellular networks, the gateway is ideal for portable field deployments and offers the option to add Wi-Fi, more I/O, or Ethernet ports if required. AirLink mobile gateways also support Sierra Wireless’ device management cloud application, AirLink® Management Service, which remotely configures, deploys, and monitors the gateways over-the-air.

The NDI-RS Road Warrior system provides portability coupled with covert ALPR functionality. Looking and functioning as a speed or variable messaging system (VMS) trailer, the Road Warrior houses a complete ALPR system and connects seamlessly to NDI-RS’s back office platform via persistent, reliable communications provided by the on-board AirLink gateway. The Road Warrior can monitor hotlists, collect intelligence for later investigations, and trigger alerts to patrol vehicles, dispatch centers, or officer emails. In addition, the GPS capabilities provided by the AirLink gateway makes it easy to keep track of Road Warrior deployment locations.

“As a member of the Sierra Wireless Solution Partner Program, when we need support we have an entire team at our disposal – from engineers to sales,” said McKissick. “We can communicate across teams to share what’s going on and work in concert to quickly get issues resolved or new devices up and running in our systems.”

The NDI-RS solutions are monitored by trained patrol officers and supervisors in the field and overseen from the CMPD’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC), a 24-hour command center staffed by trained detectives who support the CMPD’s field officers. The RTCC also monitors more than 800 video cameras throughout the metropolitan area. Under specific policy and guidelines, the CMPD protects the privacy of citizens by restricting the use of their technology to law enforcement purposes and enforces retention periods for all camera and LPR footage.

The RTCC primarily focuses on crimes in progress and priority alerts. LPR cameras alert the RTCC to suspect or wanted vehicles, and the RTCC officers can use the video camera system to view activity. All the video cameras have “pan/tilt/zoom” (PTZ) capability, so RTCC officers can follow incidents and relay information and intelligence to officers in the field. A dedicated workstation provides access to the NDI-RS back office system, but every workstation in the RTCC, as well as selected trained patrol officers in the field, can access the LPR systems.