Latest tech gear 'turns police into RoboCop'

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Like the main character of the then-futuristic 1987 movie about an all-seeing humanoid cop, patrol officers are being equipped with the kind of high-tech communications gear that puts them on the cutting edge.

Officers are being wired to wear wide-angle miniature cameras on their uniforms that see and hear what they are seeing and hearing. They are being issued new smartphone-like devices so video of suspects or tactical situations can be fed to them in the field. Their cars automatically scan license plates and tip off officers who are about to encounter an ex-con.

Even wilder stuff is on the horizon. One inventor, for example, is marketing a sleeve with a built-in video display, a camera, a laser beam and a stun gun for self-defense.

The Armstar sleeve has a laser pointer to light up potential troublemakers and a stun gun. One advantage of the sleeve over other versions of such gear is that it would be much more difficult to wrest away in a struggle.



The ideas and new gear are part of a drive — called "next-generation 911" — to modernize police dispatch and communications.

It is, in part, an effort to enable cops to use some of the same technology that the citizens they protect already use, such as sending text messages or video over secure channels.

The high-tech goodies aren't just going to officers in cruisers. Now, even police motorcycles are starting to be equipped with laptops that officers can use by the side of the road.

About 100 Los Angeles County Sheriff's motorcycles are equipped with laptops that deputies can pull out of a saddle bag during traffic stops and quickly fire up to use for license-plate checks and wanted-suspect inquiries.

However a big issue for departments is cost. And not just for the equipment.

With budgets already decimated by the recession, they are trying to figure out how to catalog and manage what would be, for a big department, thousands and thousands of hours of mostly routine video, part of which could become evidence in court cases.

Department are finding some information technology solutions can be had without having to shell out a lot money.

One of the best examples is surveillance of social media. Capt. Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says his department uses Twitter to monitors chat rooms as well as other social media to try to get ahead of potential crime problems.

In Tampa, police are putting social media to use in other ways. They have installed systems in their cars that create a department intranet.

Officers patrolling the community can type up their notes in a blog from their car and send them around to others. And officers returning from a few days off can use the blog to update themselves on issues that came up while they were off.

They can also use the system, called NC4 Safecop, to analyze neighborhood crime data — right from the car.

"This is real-time information," says Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor. "Technology is invaluable for officers in the day-to-day crime fight."