Lompoc has been successfully using its citywide wireless broadband network from Tropos to provide competitively priced fee-based public Internet access service within the community. The City is now expanding use of the network and adding mobile Tropos nodes and data computers (MDC) in all of its police vehicles to provide fast access to information, such as criminal records and mug shots, from police vehicles in the field. The first two police vehicles were outfitted with the new equipment yesterday!

The MDC's include integrated in-vehicle mobile video. Video is recorded and temporarily stored on the MDC then downloaded to a video server as a police vehicle reaches any precinct. The in-car video enables officers to record events or situations while on patrol providing real-time situational awareness as well as video evidence to more efficiently prosecute cases.

In addition, the city is installing a video surveillance system that will leverage the Tropos network for communications – improving public safety and increasing police operational efficiencies. RoboVu's RoboSPY video surveillance solution has been selected.

“One of the main reasons we were able to move forward with this project was because the Tropos network was already in place,” said Captain Larry Ralston, who has been leading the video project for the Lompoc Police Department. “The network has the bandwidth, reliability and security already built into it and has made it affordable for us to deploy the state-of-the-art surveillance system from RoboVu that will make Lompoc a safer community for citizens and businesses.”

Funded by a $400,000 Homeland Security grant, the program will be rolled out in three phases and cover eight square miles of the city.

Lompoc is a great example of how a city can leverage a single Tropos network infrastructure to cost effectively deliver multiple municipal services that improve quality of life in the community.

Denise