GPS Is More Than Big Brother To These Cops
Catching crooks is going high-tech, with GPS technology being trialled in police cars.
The system, called automatic vehicle locators (AVL), will allow central officers to take calls about burglaries, see which are the closest police cars and send them to the area from different directions in a bid to block off offenders.
The roll-out of AVLs to western suburbs police is planned for next year.
The trials are being held in Midland, with “impressive” results as well as odd hiccups.
Although GPS has been criticised as a form of “big brother”, Police Union president Mike Dean said the technology would increase safety for police.
“No one likes to have someone looking over their shoulder, but from a safety aspect they are a good idea,” Mr Dean said. Read Full Report Here:
This article has a number of good news aspects. I’m particularly interested in the idea that the management is realizing that GPS tracking can do much more than just make dispatch of existing assets easier. It can put more police on the street and cut down on the waste of resources involve din many fixed posts.
I haven’t seen too many US police agencies catch on to this idea yet, so Western Australia is really leading the fleet at this time
Crime and the need for police officers is an ever-shifting nebula. Build a police station at sight ‘A’ today because there is lots of crime in the area and the next thing you know crime will have moved to area ‘B”. I see this in my own city, millions of dollars spent on new satellite police station for reasons I certainly can’t understand. The average citizen never sees the inside of a police station. When he/she needs assistance a call to 911 brings the closest patrol and that’s that. Policemen never walk, so what difference does it make if the police station is 3 miles or 10 miles away. Unless they are looking for a place to play pinochle, the police belong in their cars … monitored, managed and kept safe with GPS tracking.