ALWAYS EVOLVING IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY

by Andres Lacambra

Keeping Pace with Progress

The world looked a lot different in the 1920s when Motorola Solutions began its nearly 100-year journey in communications and technology. During this era, the telegraph, telephone, guns, nightsticks, call boxes, and systems that helped with criminal identification and fingerprinting were common tools of the trade for police officers. In the decades since, there have been many changes within the public safety industry, as well as within the technology space. Innovative solutions have become game changers for the men and women who don a uniform today, and technology will continue to be critical for law enforcement in the years to come.

After the initial launch of the company’s radios in 1928, Motorola Solutions’ founders designed a rugged one-way police cruiser radio receiver for police broadcasts, introduced a more affordable two-way AM radio equipment for public safety agencies, and launched portable two-way AM radios for World War II. In 1969, the company achieved one of its most noteworthy milestones when legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong used Motorola’s specially developed backpack antenna to relay man’s first words from the moon to Earth.

Today, agencies around the world trust Motorola Solutions’ mission-critical P25 communications solutions to help keep them safe. Technologies such as APX portable and mobile P25 radios are cutting-edge critical communications lifelines. When APX land mobile radios, ASTRO P25 radio systems, dispatch consoles, and applications are deployed as a unified system, data transmissions happen faster, location coordinates are improved, and team communication is maximized - whether it’s a typical day or in the midst of a catastrophic natural disaster that knocks out power to an entire region.

Law enforcement agencies who have relied on Motorola Solutions radios for years now turn to a global industry leader for products that help gather evidence, strengthen incident reporting, and improve emergency response.

In-car Innovation

Mobile video solutions, for example, can be utilized by officers to inform response, capture visual evidence, and improve operational efficiencies. According to the National Motorists Association, the first recorded use of a dashcam occurred in the 1930s. A Washington, D.C. inventor created the first “windshield camera” designed to help police officers catch traffic violators. Three cameras, mounted to a vehicle, took still pictures for evidence and recorded the time and date. A California Highway Patrol officer was the first to be photographed using his personal motion-picture camera on the job in 1939.

Today, Motorola Solutions’ M500 in-car video system is a groundbreaking leap forward in realtime awareness. It doesn’t just record what it sees, it analyzes everything with multiple cameras that simultaneously examine video while recording evidence. The M5F front camera, designed for maximum fidelity, delivers excellent video quality— even in low-light conditions. The technology is small and easy to mount onto the windshield, without imposing on the driver’s sightlines and without being a hazard in a vehicle crash situation. Front-camera technology creates wide-angle and focused streams, each in dual resolution, to ensure that officers capture the whole picture.

The M5P cabin camera features a built-in infrared floodlight that illuminates the passenger compartment to record incidents as they occur. During an event, the cabin camera, which can attach to the cage or the headline in the backseat, will start recording once it detects a person. Officers can expand their view further with the M5R rear camera, which widens their situational awareness by capturing sharp video-quality evidence from behind the police vehicle.

The M500 model not only captures evidence, it integrates with the Motorola Solutions license plate reader (LPR) system and can livestream video to CommandCentral Aware, Motorola Solutions’ situational awareness software. This allows analysts to see an incident unfolding and summon backup help or EMS teams, if necessary. In-car systems and body cameras can also work seamlessly as a single system, capturing synchronized video of an event from multiple vantage points.

Police officers don’t always have the time to go back to the station and download important evidence into their video management systems. With LTE uploading, they can send important in-car and body camera footage back to the station without leaving the field. These remote capabilities are rooted in operational efficiency.

Mobile video solutions garner a great deal of attention in public safety circles today, and rightly so, but it’s the product of mobile video solutions—evidence—that is the real star of the story. Motorola Solutions offers VideoManager EL or VideoManager EX for departments using in-car and body cameras. Both systems are encrypted and make it easy to download evidence. The company’s CommandCentral Evidence system has the ability to manage many different types of digital evidence to provide a consolidated view of the case and can also be used for redacting, judicial sharing, and transcribing video for live cases.

Leveraging License Plates

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) describes license plate recognition as a camera with character recognition that can quickly scan the license plate of a vehicle, compare it to current records of license plates associated with criminal or suspicious activity, and alert police of any notable matches. Over the years, LPR systems have been greatly refined and usage has grown steadily. According to IACP 2022 data, 40 percent of departments use LPR systems—a number that appears to be on the rise these days.

Motorola Solutions’ L5M mobile LPR system generates high-quality images in low-light and high-speed conditions, captures more accurate data and pairs well with in-car video systems. L5M assists agencies with real-time threat detection and mitigation while helping to close all manner of criminal investigations faster. LPR systems can trigger a real-time alert to improve situational awareness when they spot a plate that is a match against a database of wanted plates. For example, if a vehicle associated with an Amber Alert crosses an intersection with ALPR cameras or drives by an LPR-equipped patrol car, a real-time alert with the location of that sighting will be issued to the appropriate recipients. Integrated LPR systems are highly valuable tools that help increase officer efficiency and productivity - allowing officers to spend less time on rote activities and more time in the community keeping residents safe.

The Salina City Police Department in Utah has had a number of success stories since deploying their LPR systems. One pertained to an incident where two girls were kidnapped in Aurora, Colorado. They were being taken to California for human trafficking. Salina City shared its LPR data with another agency who then put a hot plate or plate of interest into the LPR system. Utah Highway Patrol got the alert, the vehicle was spotted, police intervened, and the two little girls were rescued. Another time, a young lady was taken from a school about 35 miles east of Salina City. That jurisdiction knew that Salina City had LPR and contacted the department. The agency’s LPR cameras were used to identify the direction the suspect was traveling and ultimately helped authorities rescue the female.

Body of Evidence

Body cameras are a staple in policing, according to the National Institute of Justice. At first, officers just needed a body camera to record evidence, but it’s much more than that today. Motorola Solutions has a family of body cams to meet the needs of public safety and private-sector security personnel. The V700 body camera offers two differentiating capabilities: real-time GPS location and the ability to livestream over LTE to CommandCentral Aware. The VB400 body camera’s affordable entry price makes it appealing for both public safety and private security applications.

Body cameras enable police departments to capture critical evidence in the heat of the moment—and even after the fact. Out in the field anything can happen in the blink of an eye. That’s why body cameras have recording triggers from two-way radios and activate if a radio goes into Fall-Alert. Holster Aware is a sensor that prompts a body camera to automatically start recording when an officer’s weapon has been unholstered. Record-After-The-Fact allows body cameras to recover critical evidence days after an incident, even when a recording wasn’t initiated.

Artificial intelligence (AI) analysis helps departments manage the sheer volume of footage that is being captured by mobile video technologies today. AI allows authorities to search for keywords and analyze video content, thereby reducing the number of hours agencies spend combing through footage.

With body cams, command staff can have eyes on the scene throughout an event and provide officers with the situational awareness that is needed for decision-making and safety. The ability for department leaders to watch an officer, from their perspective, respond to an incident in real time is huge.

Answers from Above

Drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have become indispensable resources for police officers out on patrol too. The first drone explicitly used for law enforcement was developed to aid in search and rescue operations. Highly adaptable, drones also act as “eyes in the sky” during crime scene investigation, SWAT operations, and firefighting. Motorola Solutions offers police departments a first-rate resource in its CAPE purpose-built drone video and flight control software. CAPE is a subscription-based software that provides livestreaming video, local and remote piloting, and evidence-grade video management. Police departments can integrate CAPE-equipped drones into daily workflows and rapidly make informed decisions from a distance - ultimately reducing injuries and helping to save lives.

The Chula Vista Police Department in California pioneered drones as first responders (DFR) by launching drones from the roof of its police headquarters to respond quickly to emergency calls for service. Today, departments are utilizing drones to reach and evaluate situations before officers arrive, sometimes even clearing a call without dispatching units. Due to the uniqueness of each community, no two drone programs are exactly the same. The scale, objectives, and sophistication of UAS efforts vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Police departments often start with a small program and expand it as they become more familiar with operating drones in their airspace. Some agencies may utilize a small drone kept in the back of police cruisers for tactical situations, while others may have fully integrated DFR programs with multiple launch points throughout the community.

A Long Legacy and Looking Forward

Motorola Solutions’ legacy is rooted in the recognition and anticipation of public safety needs and its ability to develop technologies that enhance the work being done by those on the front lines each day. The company’s innovations are built to integrate with other technologies so that first responders can effectively and efficiently do their jobs, protect community members, and go home safely to their families. While the tools available to law enforcement continue to evolve, Motorola Solutions’ commitment to public safety remains constant.

Andres Lacambra is the Senior Director of Evidence Engineering at Motorola Solutions, responsible for the company’s body-camera, in-vehicle video, and evidence management portfolio. During his 25 years at Motorola Solutions, Andres has held various leadership roles centered around innovation and public-safety technology advancement across critical communications, command center software, and video.