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From
the General Manager's
Desk
In the last newsletter, I spoke
about our plans to take our user training
conference "on the road" this year, with one-day
workshops around the country. So far this year,
we've conducted user meetings and workshops in
Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Texas and
Massachusetts. We have workshops scheduled
in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Hawaii, and we're
working to schedule multiple workshops in the
Mid-Atlantic region and California over the next
few months.
The attendance and the level of
participation have been great. The email we got
from Captain John Spann of the Midlothian (TX)
Police Department sums up what we've heard at
all the workshops: "I enjoyed it and it is a
great program. It was nice to interact
with other agencies using the product as well as
putting a face to the voice of some of the
staff. Pass on my thanks to
all."
Our user workshop in
Brentwood, TN on May 5th is scheduled to
coincide with the IACP Law Enforcement
Information Management (LEIM) Conference in
nearby Nashville, May 6th-10th. Any
customer who finds this location and time
convenient is invited to join us at the
Tennessee user training workshop. (We'll provide
transportation from the LEIM Conference hotel to
Brentwood.) You can register for the user
training workshop anytime prior to May 5th, but
LEIM Conference
registration closes on April
1st. You'll find links to both
events in the Upcoming Events section
of this newsletter.
Best
Regards,
Ken
Souza
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PocketCop® on BlackBerry:
Special Limited-time Package Pricing Available
for New
Users |
|
 BIO-key Customers in the
News
If you weren't able to make
it to the live event, or you'd like to
learn more about the special introductory
PocketCop on BlackBerry package described in the
article above, click here to view the webinar. Even if
you're already familiar with PocketCop, the
webinar is a great way to introduce it to
command staff and others in your
department. | |
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 New
Product Spotlight: MobileSRO™ Links Schools and
Law Enforcement for Classroom and Campus
Safety
BIO-key
is pleased to announce the availability of MobileSRO™ - a silent, secure
emergency messaging and notification solution
for school resource officers, school
administrators, security personnel and classroom
teachers. When an incident or threat occurs in
the school or on campus, MobileSRO provides the
vital communications link between law
enforcement and school personnel.
With
MobileSRO, a teacher or administrator can
quickly and easily send a silent alert - without
unnecessarily alarming students or provoking an
intruder. For current MobileCop customers,
leveraging the InfoServer™ architecture you
already have in place lets you link the school
resource officer directly with dispatch and law
enforcement command to coordinate the response.
The SRO and administrators can also use
MobileSRO to inform other faculty and staff
about an incident, and how to protect themselves
and their students until it's
resolved.
For
just $150 per user (software
license cost), MobileSRO can be deployed on any
combination of PCs, laptops, and BlackBerry and
Windows Mobile smartphones. (For use outside of
an office desktop setting, we recommend
BlackBerry smartphones because of their
portability and long battery life.) For more
information contact David Finchum.
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 New Customer
Profile: Hawaii
County Deploys MobileCop and MobileCop
Navigator
The Hawaii County (HI)
Police
Department, the primary law enforcement
agency on the island of Hawaii, recently joined
the BIO-key mobile data user community. In
addition to MobileCop, each of the Department's
vehicles is equipped with MobileCop®
Navigator,
BIO-key's mapping solution using Microsoft
MapPoint. With Navigator, dispatchers can
determine the location of units closest to an
incident and officers can get directions and
best route helping the Department respond more
quickly to calls for service. The system
will also enhance officer safety by tracking the
location of all patrol
officers.
The Honolulu Police
Department, another BIO-key MobileCop
customer, assisted the Hawaii Police Department
in its selection process by serving as the host
for a successful pilot. "This system will
improve interoperable communications with
the Honolulu Police Department on an ongoing
basis, as well," noted Major Sam Thomas of
Hawaii
County. |
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Federal Grants
Update
The
Department of Homeland Security has announced
new guidelines for its 2008 grant programs.
"Acquiring systems allowing connectivity to
State, local, and Federal data networks, such as
the National Crime Information Center (NCIC)"
remains an allowable cost under both the
Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) and the
Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant
program in 2008. For more information and a link
to the DHS grant site, click
here to access Emergency
Management magazine's 2008 DHS Grants
Resource Center, co-sponsored by BIO-key, Sprint
and BlackBerry.
Also
on the Resource Center is the recent DHS announcement of the April 4th
deadline for receipt of FY 2008 applications
from local fire and rescue agencies for the $500
million Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG)
program. "Interoperable communications" remains
a program priority in 2008.
The Dubuque Fire
Department recently used AFG
funding for deploying MobileRescue to enable common
dispatch and provide interoperability between
fire commanders and MobileCop users in the
Dubuque Police
Department. |
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 BIO-key's David
Finchum on National Data Interoperability
Panel
BIO-key Product Manager David
Finchum has been selected as an industry
representative to the Public Safety Data
Interoperability Program. Funded by the U.S.
Department of Justice Bureau of Justice
Assistance, the PSDI Program brings
industry and public safety agencies together to
define standards and identify best practices for
sharing critical information between emergency
communications centers and public safety
agencies, and with other levels of government.
The Program, co-managed by the Association of
Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO)
and the IJIS Institute, is recognition at
the national level that interoperability
is more than just voice communications.
|
 Upcoming
Events
Join
us at the following events in the next few
months:
BIO-key User Training
Workshops
April 8: Midwest City, OK.
Registration.
Click here to
register.
May 5:
Brentwood, TN. Click
here to register.
Conferences
April 21 - 22
Minnesota
Chiefs of Police Conference, Duluth, MN
May 6 - 9 IACP
Law
Enforcement Information Management
Conference,
Nashville, TN
May 21 - 23
Arkansas ACIC
Conference, Ft.
Smith, AR
June 24 - 25
Police/Security
Expo, Atlantic
City, NJ
June 30 - July
2 National
Sheriffs' Association Conference, Indianapolis,
IN |
BIO-key Newsletters Now Available
Online
Looking for information you
remember reading in a past Newsletter edition?
You can click here or just
go to "Newsletters" under "News and Events" on
the BIO-key home page to access recent Law
Enforcement Newsletters. We've also posted the
most recent edition of our Biometrics Newsletter
on the site.
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