"Our police sergeants had noticed that officers were devoting considerable time driving back from their beats to the station to write and file reports," said Scott Harmon, assistant director of Information Services for the City of Glendale. "We thought if we could find a way for them to work from their cruisers, we could make a significant gain in productivity."

The Wireless Solution
Each patrol car will be installed with a computer connected to a Wireless Local Area Network to provide communication coverage across the City. Then Ecutel will provide its Viatores 3.1 mobile private network software to enable Glendale’s 300 police officers to file reports, access national databases, and communicate internally while patrolling the City’s streets.

While productivity and convenience are important, the City’s Police Department could not sacrifice security. "We want to give our officers the convenience and efficiency of a wireless LAN connection without losing the security that is indispensable to police work," Harmon said. "Viatores met both these needs."

Viatores 3.1 combines Mobile IP and IPSec, two industry standards, to ensure interoperability and compliance with all security policies required by public safety organizations. Consequently, the software can handle functions like authentication, key exchange and encryption.