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The Springfield News-Leader

Upgrades speed up transmission of more types of information, link cars electronically
By Mike Penprase

Motorists who try to play a numbers game on Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers are discovering their ploy has been thwarted. That's because patrol cruisers now are equipped with updated computers from which troopers can access not only drivers' records, but their photographs as well. Drivers who use someone else's Social Security number — a brother or sister's, for example — to evade a ticket or arrest will be found out when troopers put that information in their on-board computers and discover ID photos don't match, patrol Sgt. Robert Proctor said while demonstrating a computer installed in a blue Ford Crown Victoria. And troopers receive the information almost instantaneously because transmitting data such as a driver's licenses, vehicle registration and outstanding warrants is from computer to computer, he said. "We don't have to use the radio as much as we used to," he said. That's important when there's sometimes so much radio traffic that receiving information is delayed, he said. So, along with speeding information retrieval, the new computers improve trooper safety, he said. The Mobile Computing Devices have other features the computers they replace didn't have, Troop D spokesman Sgt. Dan Bracker said.

A Global Positioning System, or GPS, is incorporated in the computer, making it possible to determine a trooper's location without using the radio, he said. An atlas in the system also includes voice-over that provides directions to a destination. And troopers can exchange information with each other using the computers, rather than by using radio. Its likely computerization won't stop with the latest equipment in patrol cruisers, Bracker said.

Some state patrols now have systems that allow troopers to create computer-generated tickets from their cars, eliminating hand-written citations, he said. No telling when Missouri patrol cars will have that feature, he said. The patrol is equipping all its vehicles with the new computers, patrol spokesman Lt. Tim Hull said. The effort started in 1999 when the patrol received a grant for its first computers, and has continued to receive grants for the $6,500 systems that include the computer, vehicle mount, software and antennas, he said. The computers now can connect to state Department of Revenue computers to obtain license information, he said. "We just recently got the capability to interface," he said.

With around 700 patrol cruisers and canine units equipped with the computers, the patrol now is equipping its portable scale trucks, he said.

For more information on Rose International, visit the company's website at www.roseint.com or email pr@roseint.com.