MobileCop now deployed in 17 police departments in Northampton County, Pa.

Officers throughout Northampton County, Pa., use MobileCop to instantly query federal and state law enforcement databases directly from laptops in their patrol cars. That way, police can obtain information quickly on a person or vehicle, without tying up the radio and a dispatcher.

“The officer safety aspect was an important consideration in our decision,” Easton Police Chief Larry Palmer said. “At a traffic stop, for example, the officer will be alerted automatically when a MobileCop license plate check matches a reported stolen vehicle—before he or she approaches the driver.”

The Easton Police Department joins 16 neighboring law enforcement agencies with MobileCop-enabled patrol vehicles currently hosted by the Northampton County Communications Center. Under the hosting arrangement, the Communications Center provides a secure virtual private network (VPN) tunnel between state and federal databases and local MobileCop users. The VPN is accessible through any broadband or Wi-Fi network, giving each of the participating agencies flexibility in selecting the carrier or carriers with the best coverage for the respective jurisdiction.

“A key benefit our solution provides these 17 agencies is that they have the option to operate on a variety of public and private carrier networks,” said Ken Souza, vice president and general manager of BIO-key's Law Enforcement Division. “All of the 115 MobileCop-enabled police units in the county can see the same alert as the officer at the scene, which ensures better backup.”