13 minute read
INDUSTRY NEWS
By Police Fleet Professional Staff
RCMP Warns They Can’t Meet Government’s Goal For All-Electric Fleet by 2025
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) says they can’t ‘go green’ with the technology currently available to them. Vehicles may be inoperable in remote regions with limited charging infrastructure and strained power grids. The federal government plans to replace the RCMP fleet with zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
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Police Fleet Helps Maximize Mission-Critical Uptime with Ford Pro™ Telematics
Ford Pro™ Telematics enhances mission-critical uptime for Dane County, WI Police. The Ford Pro Intelligence platform pulls in vehicle data, such as crash alerts, and presents the information on a dashboard. The near-real-time data empowers the agency to shift from reactive repairs to proactive maintenance.
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Menlo Park Police Department’s Tesla Patrol Vehicle Pilot Finds That Teslas Don’t Appear to be ‘Patrol Cars of the Future’
Menlo Park Police pilot program finds that Teslas are useful for patrol and non-patrol operations but may not be the ‘patrol cars of the future.’ The department cites officer safety concerns, lack of off-roading ability, and limited interior space as reasons for these findings.
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Idaho
State Police Adds Nine Ford Mustang Dark Horses to Its
Fleet
Idaho State Police added nine Ford Mustang Dark Horses to its fleet. An outfitter in Boise customizes the vehicles with high-end radios, lights, equipment, and kick screens. The department is also using the Stop Stick tire deflation device and axon camera systems.
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Police Fleet Expo 2024 Sets New Attendance Record in Fort Worth, Texas!
Police Fleet Professionals descended upon Fort Worth, last week, to participate in a ride & drive event (DriveX), classroom presentations and a full Expo. Several lucky attendees were also able to take a GM Envolve assembly plant tour, compliments of a raffle drawing. The record-breaking education and networking event included an overview by Ford Pro, GM Envolve and Stellantis/Dodge Law on their 2025MY police vehicles as well as multiple course offerings including fleet technology, servicing electric vehicles, lifecycle costing, telematics and more. A welcoming reception and several networking evening events were held Sunday through Wednesday.
A special thank you to all sponsors that helped make PFE 2024 such a success including 911 Circuits, Bridgestone, Cap Fleet, Code 3, Dana Safety Supply, Federal Signal, Ford Pro, GM Envolve, Intermotive Vehicle Controls, Magnetic Mic, Printek, Progard Products, Setina Manufacturing, SoundOff Signal, Stellantis/Dodge Law, Westin Public Safety Division and Whelen Engineering Company.
Mark your calendars! Police Fleet Expo 2025 will take place in Birmingham, AL (Aug 18-21). More details available soon.
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Cleveland Police Piloting Locally Made E-Motorcycles
The Cleveland, OH Division of Police rolled out a prototype e-motorcycle manufactured by local company Land Moto. The three-month pilot program includes a single vehicle to determine if they want to use them for large-scale events and community policing.
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Dodge’s Next-Gen Charger Cop Car Could Get EV Version That Requires Regular Charging
Dodge Law, the Stellantis division providing law enforcement vehicles, is teasing an electric Charger Daytona police car concept. The Charger Daytona pursuit version could boast 456-hp, and a 100.5kWh battery should result in a decent range.
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Ford Announces 2025 Police Interceptor Utility Cruiser
The 2025 Ford Police Interceptor Utility (PIU) is now available to law enforcement agencies across the country. A standard hybrid powertrain option powers onboard equipment even when the gas engine is turned off. The Police Perimeter Alert system detects moving threats around the vehicle for officer safety.
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Seized Chevy Camaro Gets New Life as Michigan Patrol Car
The Saginaw County Sheriff’s Department in Michigan has converted a 1981 Chevrolet Camaro X28 once owned by drug dealers into a fully operational police patrol vehicle. No taxpayer dollars were used for the transformation, since the entire process was funded by money confiscated from the drug dealers themselves.
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Oklahoma Police Department First In State To Use Grappler Bumpers
Broken Arrow Police Department in Oklahoma adopts Grappler Bumpers for its fleet. These bumpers feature a net that wraps around the wheel of a fleeing vehicle to stop them during a pursuit. The Grapplers are currently installed on the department’s Chevy Tahoes and Ford F-150s.
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Springfield PD Brings Back Motorcycle Unit
The Springfield, IL Police Department has two motorcycles in its fleet for the first time since the 1970s. The department is using them for parades, funeral processions, and traffic details. The motorcycles have been helpful in situations where they need to get through small areas quickly.
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Teaser Alert: Dodge Hints at 2025 All-Electric Charger Daytona Pursuit Concept
Dodge Law recently posted a teaser about the 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona Pursuit Concept on their Instagram page. Rumors suggesting that Dodge may introduce an allelectric Daytona Pursuit version aligns with the trend toward electrification in law enforcement vehicles.
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Ford Files Patent for Adaptive Upfitter Switches to Streamline Control of Aftermarket Accessories
Ford Motor Company filed a patent for adaptive upfitter switches that may be used in future Ford vehicles. Upfitter switches enable owners to more easily power and control exterior lighting and other aftermarket items, giving users better control over their accessories without having to add more switches.
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Menlo Park and Ukiah Police Chiefs: Teslas Not Yet Suitable for Police Use Due to Space and Range Limitations
The police chiefs at Menlo Park Police Department and Ukiah Police Department say that Teslas are not ready for police use. They cited issues such as limited interior spaces for police work, especially after being outfitted, and charging range.
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Jotto Desk™ ZRT Gun Racks are designed for any configuration you can imagine. Partition Mounted, Single Cell Mounted, Rear Seat Mounted or Free Standing, and Rear Hatch Mounted – Single Weapon or Dual. Jotto Desk was awarded two patents for these innovative solutions (US Patent No. 8,910,560, US Patent No. 9,481,312, and US Patent No. 10,563,943).
SmartLok Technology was developed to thwart not only the theft potential from hotwiring that exists,but also the threat from a magnet or even a hammer strike.
By Police Fleet Professional Staff
Police officers do much of their work in patrol vehicles on computers nowadays compared to years ago when they would go back to the station and manually write out paper reports.
With today’s advanced in-vehicle technology, it is imperative to manage all of this vital data in a way that is efficient and scalable. CIRRUS BY PANASONIC™ 2.0 is a connected vehicle platform that is a scalable, cloud-based approach for managing vehicle-toeverything (V2X) ecosystems.
From data to devices, CIRRUS 2.0 syncs disparate traffic management tools into a single platform that streamlines operations and improves data management and overall safety for first responders and the public as well. Essentially, CIRRUS allows many different tools to “talk” to connected vehicles in a consistent way. It uses automation to reduce the cognitive load of users and expand the range of source data available for connected vehicle safety and mobility solutions in an expanded, seamlessly integrated approach.
The new CIRRUS 2.0 platform also includes enhanced incident detection, with tools for leveraging connected vehicle data in different operating environments. It uses an advanced data architecture with insights that can be shared across a variety of information systems.
Key features of CIRRUS 2.0 include:
• Interoperability between advanced capabilities of V2X systems and traditional transportation information
• Management platform using intelligent data collection to enable advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) insights
• A completely redesigned user experience (UX) incorporating requests and suggestions from the CIRRUS user base to streamline the way V2X systems are accessed by both fleet and roadway operations staff
CIRRUS as a platform came out of R&D investments from Panasonic automotive software. According to Kjeld Lindsted, Head of Products and Services, the original target of CIRRUS was to work with Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to manage connected vehicle data. In 2017 and 2018, this was an approach using dedicated hardware and radio spectrum that the FCC mandated to roll out in all new vehicles. Panasonic set up the CIRRUS platform as a way to handle a huge influx of data. The company was heavily DOT-focused and started a few trial deployments with that particular approach to the technology.
In the public safety field, in order to get to scale, Panasonic realized they would need to add some hardware and devices to patrol vehicles beyond the standard equipment in the sample sets. They looked at other ways to achieve the benefits of connected vehicle technology, such as safety improvements, reduction in travel time, access to targeted green lights at intersections, etc., that would benefit police and fire departments in an effort to expand their service area. This led to working with Panasonic’s TOUGHBOOK teams to use that rugged laptop hardware as a gateway to the vehicle to get the data needed for safety information and mobility applications off of these high-priority types of fleets.
BY PANASONIC™ 2.0:
We all know that police environments, both for the first responder and the vehicle, can be chaotic. One of the challenges for police departments is keeping track of their vehicles and what is going on inside of them. It is nearly impossible with fleets that have 1,000 or more vehicles. Dashcams, lights and sirens systems, gunracks, connectivity technology (cellular modem), computer, are just a few of the items within the vehicle.
Telematics programs are technology solutions that help monitor the location of the vehicle, check engine light status, and oil change schedule, mileage, seat belt use, etc. In the old days, a spreadsheet might have worked for this type of data recording, but with larger fleets, agencies need this in digital form since a spreadsheet won’t help answer those questions at scale. It is crucial for them to understand what is happening with their vehicles, such as where they are on the map, have they been stolen and if so, how do they find them, have officers taken them home, etc.
Although existing telematics systems are available, they are typically built for a rental or logistics fleet. However, there are some key differences in their use cases for police fleets in particular. For example, they are often signed out to one individual versus several drivers, and the demand on the vehicles is much greater due to higher service hours and route patterns. In police work, sometimes a patrol vehicle will be sitting idle during traffic enforcement, and at other times, the vehicle’s engine may be maxed out in a high-speed chase. Therefore, there is a need to tailor how the software is used based on the eccentricities and needs of the fleet.
Another major difference between police fleets and other fleets involves all of the equipment within the vehicle. Due to limited space in the inside of police cars, it is necessary to keep items as low-profile as possible. The more devices you add to the vehicle, the more difficult it is to maintain a safe and efficient working environment for the officer. Since Panasonic’s
TOUGHBOOK is already in a large number of police vehicles, and CIRRUS 2.0 is using the TOUGHBOOK as a gateway to the vehicle, no additional equipment or hardware are required to be put into that space. By connecting to the CAN or OBD2 port, departments can understand all the necessary details about the vehicle, such as location, if the transmission is failing, current fuel level, etc.
In addition, by connecting to the vehicle’s lights and sirens system, agencies are alerted if the vehicle is in a ‘rolling code,’ which indicates if they are active and possibly in a pursuit or traffic stop. All of this information is collected with software that is then streamed to the cloud. Once in the cloud, CIRRUS 2.0 is able to tailor the telematics outputs.
A lot of competitors offer similar types of data points, but Panasonic tailors how to deal with them and what those types of things mean in specific formats to draw insights specifically for fire and police departments. In administrative reporting, for example, without a digital reporting option, an employee or intern would have to go around to each vehicle to check the mileage manually, which is very time-consuming and prone to human error as well.
