Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Denver with my husband. Talk about cool technology! I couldn't believe the capabilities of some of the "toys" we saw. There were several companies pushing their version of e-tickets. Police can use a handheld device that scans the bar code of a driver's license, it can take a picture of the driver and it can run the license plate number all within 60 seconds. There was a little printer in the squad car that the officer can use to just print the ticket or warning to the driver and off they go. The information is stored on a server. This device can be used to check the officers' stop history. It can graph the types of stops each officer makes and whether the officer is stopping only certain races of people or only stopping in certain locations. I couldn't believe all the different data reporting capabilities this program had. And I was actually interested in seeing the pie charts and bar graphs. Dr. Closen, you'll turn me into a techno geek yet!
Another new thing being advertised heavily was the license plate recognition camera. A camera is mounted to the light bar on top of a squad or other place. The camera automatically recognizes a plate and runs it. The in-car computer lets the officer know if a plate comes back as a need to stop vehicle.
I won't even begin to explain the cool police features found on a blackberry/crackberry. Holy cow!
There were mobile command vehicles which contained every type of communication port imaginable. There were wires and outlets everywhere. We saw a new type of tazer gun. There were simulation stations throughout the exhibit hall too. It was a great opportunity that I can't give justice to just by blogging.
Last but not least, my highlight may have been meeting Erik Estrada. He had no technology to share whatsoever, but he was representing a college.
See all tomorrow.