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From the
General
Manager's
Desk
There's
a
lot
of
BIO-key
product
news
to
announce
this
quarter,
with
the
launch
of
MobileCampus™,
our
new
information
sharing
and
notification
solution
for
higher
education,
a
PocketCop®
upgrade,
and
enhancements
to
InfoExchange™.
But,
there's
even
more
to
come with
the
release
of
InfoServer™
version
7.0.
Customers
will
receive
a
special
email
announcement later
this
Summer,
describing
all the
new
features in
release
7.0,
including:
o Role-based
Security: an
easy-to-manage
utility
for
delegating
selected
system
administration
responsibilities.
A
host
agency,
for
example,
will
be
able
to
delegate password
maintenance
and
user
data
views
directly
to
hosted
agencies.
o Roll
Call:
a
new
"wiki"
based
method
for
posting
and
viewing
announcements,
such
as
house
watches
and
BOLOs.
With
the
price
of
gas
skyrocketing,
reducing
the
need
for
officers
to
travel
into
the
station for
this
information
can
help
keep
costs
down.
o Virtual
Unit
Assignment:
the
ability
to
log
on
and
show
as
active
in
your
CAD
a
"virtual"
(non-MobileCop®
or
PocketCop)
individual,
unit
or
location,
such
as a
supervisor,
a
unit
working
a
construction
detail,
or a
hospital.
Our
Customer
Advisory
Board
ranked
this
as
one
of
their
top
enhancement
recommendations.
Together
with
the
other
product
enhancements
you'll
read
about
in
this
issue,
this
new
version
gives
our
customers
even
more
value
for
the
investment
they
make
in
BIO-key.
Best
Regards,
Ken
Souza
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PocketCop
Now
Supports
GPS-based
Location
Reporting
and
Mapping
PocketCop
version
3.6
for
BlackBerry
and
Windows
Mobile
devices
is
now
available. On
GPS-enabled
devices, PocketCop
can
now capture
and
transmit
GPS
data
to
BIO-key's
Fleet
Navigator
and
other
mapping
applications
that
have
been
integrated
with
InfoServer.
This
feature
allows
users,
such
as
unmarked
and
undercover
units,
to
be
tracked
in
case
of
emergency.
In
addition,
PocketCop
v3.6
adds
an
Officer
Needs
Assistance
(ONA)
capability.
As
in
MobileCop,
this
function
will
send
an
announcement
to
all
units.
For
GPS-enabled
devices,
the
announcement
will
contain
the
officer's
latitude
and
longitude,
and
the
user's
status
will
be
updated
with that
data. Currently,
only
GPS-enabled
devices
on
the
Sprint
or
AT&T
networks
are
compatible
with
PocketCop
v3.6
GPS
capability.
Verizon
currently
does
not
support
3rd-party
integration
to
their
GPS
information.
Together
with
new
features
announced
earlier
this
year,
including
CAD
Dispatch
and
Most
Recent
Inquiry
(MRI)
responses,
GPS-based
location
reporting
makes
PocketCop
an
even
better
complement
to
MobileCop
for
agency-wide
deployment.
The
timing
couldn't
be
better.
As
Officer
Bob
Ankenbauer
of
the
Somerville
MA
Police
Department
(and
a
BIO-key
CAB
member)
noted,
"With
the
price
of
gas
going
up,
departments
will
be
looking
to
put
more
officers
on
motorcycles
and
bicycles.
With
PocketCop
any
officer
now
has
full
access
to
the
critical
information
they
need
to
perform
in a
safe
and
effective
manner."
We're
also
extending
the
availability
of a
specially-priced
PocketCop
package
that
includes
a
BlackBerry
8830
smartphone
from
Sprint,
announced
in
the
last
Newsletter.
For
PocketCop
pricing
information,
call
800.400.6311.
Current
PocketCop
customers
can
upgrade
to
the
new
version
at
no
additional
cost
by
emailing
us
at
pocketcop@bio-key.com.
With
our
Over-the-Air
Deployment,
the
client
software
on
each
device
can
be
installed
or
upgraded
automatically
and
remotely.
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IACP
Excellence
in
Technology
Awards
 The
International
Association
of
Chiefs
of
Police
(IACP)
has
extended
the
deadline
for
submission
of
applications
for
its
Excellence
in
Technology
award
program
to
August
1.
Awards
will
be
made
in
several
categories,
including
"Law
Enforcement
Communications
and
Interoperability."
Winners
receive
two
complimentary
registrations
for
the
IACP
Conference
in
San
Diego
in
November
and
an
opportunity
to
present
on
the
conference
agenda.
Click
here
for
more
information.
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 New
Product
Spotlight:
MobileCampus™
Links
Campus
Security
and
Administration
Campus
police
departments
at more
than 20
colleges,
universities
and
medical
centers
around
the
country
use
BIO-key's
MobileCop
and
PocketCop
today.
With
MobileCampus™,
we're
now
extending
the
communications
and
messaging
capabilities
of these
solutions
to other
campus
personnel.
MobileCampus
lets
campus
security
and
designated
administration
staff
share
up-to-the-minute
information
on an
emergency
-
silently
and
securely.
With
MobileCampus
on their
BlackBerry
or
Windows
Mobile
smartphones,
administrators
get an
audible
alarm
that
alerts
them to
an
emergency
situation
immediately,
wherever
they are
on or
off-campus.
They get
the
detailed
information
they
need for
appropriate
response,
such as
issuing
a
campus-wide
notification
or
alert.
Two-way
communications
lets the
administrator
respond
to the
campus
security
officer
with
actions
taken or
additional
information
needed.
MobileCampus
can
serve
just
campus
community
users,
or it
can be
linked
to the
local
police
department
and
other
off-campus
emergency
responders,
based on
the
mutual
aid
protocols
in
place.
If
you're a
police
department
using
MobileCop
and
PocketCop
today,
MobileCampus
is a
cost-effective
way to
build a
secure
communications
link to
colleges
and
other
campus-based
institutions
in your
jurisdiction.
|
 BIO-key In the News
In a recent online article in LawOfficer.com on why " Choosing the Right Mobile Technology is Critical to Officer Safety," Jim Donahue maintains that: "Mobile products should be purchased from vendors whose livelihood depends on mobile products. Chances are that anyone else considers their mobile products as an after-thought, something that they must offer so that customers will buy what they really want to sell, i.e. records or CAD systems."
"There is one (product) that has withstood the test of time and I believe is worthy of serious consideration for any mobile project ... MobileCop." Donahue concludes. The article presents useful criteria for anyone choosing a new mobile solution or explaining the benefits of the one they have.
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 Product
Update:
InfoExchange™ Users Report
In
Since its introduction just a year ago, InfoExchange has been helping hundreds of officers and investigators across the U.S. to be SAFER and SMARTER. The recently-released InfoExchange version 1.1 puts even more person information from the agency's own records management system (RMS) directly and automatically in the hands of MobileCop and PocketCop users - without dispatcher intervention.
According to Sergeant Matt Jackson of the Oklahoma County (OK) Sheriff's Office, which recently deployed InfoExchange, the connection to the County's RMS provides deputies with greater insight into the persons they are dealing with at a traffic stop or other incident. The information is populated in the NCIC summary window so the officer requires no additional training. Without the need to involve the RMS vendor, deployment was rapid and economical with a simple software install and configuration.
InfoExchange also supports cross-agency and regional data sharing, so your officers and investigators can access their own RMS data and RMS data from other jurisdictions, even if those jurisdictions aren't MobileCop users. Five communities in Massachusetts now participate in a multi-agency InfoExchange data sharing network that gives their officers RMS information from the other towns, as well as their own, through a secure link.
"Individually, none of our towns can afford the number of police needed to keep track of all the activities of an increasingly mobile population of offenders," according to Patrolman Greg Kiff of the Plainville, MA Police Department - one of the consortium agencies. "InfoExchange is effectively a force multiplier for small towns like ours, letting us use the intelligence gathered from neighboring departments to fill in the gaps and work smarter. Our five towns, with our limited resources, are now actually doing what everyone has just been talking about since 9-11 - communicating and sharing data."
To find out more about how your agency and your region can benefit from InfoExchange, contact David Finchum, BIO-key Product Manager, at david.finchum@bio-key.com.
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 Upcoming
Events
Sprint PocketCop for BlackBerry Roadshow
As a follow-on to the successful Government Technology- sponsored webinar in March, BIO-key, with partners Sprint and RIM, has scheduled live PocketCop for BlackBerry demonstrations this Summer in: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Hartford, CT, Bethesda, MD, Baton Rouge, LA, Columbus, OH, St. Louis, MO and Woodbridge, NJ. If you'd like more information about any of these events, contact Myles Tillotson at myles.tillotson@bio-key.com.
BIO-key User Training Workshops
July 15 Harrisburg, PA
More workshops to be scheduled soon.
Conferences
Join us at any of these conferences in the next few months, including the National Sheriffs' Association Annual Conference in Indianapolis this week.
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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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