But now, as RIM trims and tightens itself, working toward new CEO Thorsten Heins’ mandate to stay “laser-focused” on what’s “core” to the company, an opportunity has presented itself in a key RIM vertical: law enforcement. With government customers said to be slowly leaving RIM, and RIM’s newest BlackBerry 10 handsets still months away—giving consumers reason to stray to the iPhone—public service could be a sweet spot, helping to grow RIM’s customer base and sell tablets.

RIM got a lucky break in September 2011 when the last Ford Crown Victoria—a popular police cruiser—rolled off an assembly line. With this land yacht retired, police departments can now choose from a handful of American-made options (nevermind that that Ford assembly line was in RIM’s home of Ontario), all of them far smaller than the Crown Vic, necessitating a rethink of all that when into the cars.

Police vehicles undergo a crash test at 70 mph, making all the airbags deploy. Any piece of equipment that has a part break off, potentially injuring an officer, doesn’t make it into the vehicle, Ken Koke, a constable with Ontario’s Chatham-Kent police department, explained during a May 1 session at RIM’s BlackBerry World 2012 event.

Koke drives one of the five police cruisers in the world currently equipped with a BlackBerry PlayBook.

“There’s only one wireless handheld that’s approved for [secure government use] in Canada,” said Koke. “BlackBerry is the only solution that offers two-factor authentication out-of-the-box.”

Source: http://techno-capital.com/?p=2299

It’s been about 9 months since the first of these police cars rolled through RIM campus in Waterloo, and the Mobile Innovation team at BlackBerry World™ 2012 showed off what’s new.

Alongside the Porsche 911 and its debut at CES 2012, this vehicle displays a fantastic example of how BlackBerry® technology is making strides in the auto industry. There has been a high level of interest from police forces and public service groups internationally due to the benefits of this integration and the benefits that it brings for law enforcement.

Safety, mobility, portability, and rapid access to data are crucial to public services, and this police car is slick in its display of each of these features.

Additionally, technology that is securely manageable is a must-have requirement for implementations in this industry – something that BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion brings to the table when considering police-issued BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets.

The best part? BlackBerry Mobile Fusion prepares these forces for the future with the capability to manage upcoming BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

Check out the video above to view some of the features in action, and to hear it straight from the Mobile Innovation team behind this vehicle.

Source: http://rapidberry.net/police-car-loaded-with-blackberry-technology/

The force now has a few squad cars with the BlackBerry PlayBook mounted on the dashboard. The police officers also each carry a BlackBerry Smartphone and the two devices work in conjunction with one another.

The PlayBook gives officers quick access to a varity of apps from criminal databases to printing tickets.

The best bit though is how it controls the flashing red and blue lights.

Check out the video below. It is awesome!

Source: http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/index.php/the-blackberry-playbook-powered-police-c

Why an Ontario cop and his cruiser stole the solutions hall at RIM’s conference

But now, as RIM trims and tightens itself, working toward new CEO Thorsten Heins’ mandate to stay “laser focused” on what’s “core” to the company, an opportunity has presented itself in a key RIM vertical: Law enforcement. With government customers said to be slowly leaving RIM, and RIM’s newest  BlackBerry 10 handsets still months away—giving consumers reason to stray to the iPhone—public service could be a sweet spot, helping to grow RIM’s customer base and sell tablets.

RIM got a lucky break in September 2011 when the last Ford Crown Victoria—a popular police cruiser—rolled off an assembly line. With this land yacht retired, police departments can now choose from a handful of American-made options (nevermind that that Ford assembly line was in RIM’s home of Ontario), all of them far smaller than the Crown Vic, necessitating a re-think of all that when into the cars.

Police vehicles undergo a crash test at 70 mph, making all the airbags deploy. Any piece of equipment that has a part break off, potentially injuring an officer, doesn’t make it into the vehicle, Ken Koke, a constable with Ontario’s Chatham-Kent police department, explained during a May 1 session at RIM’s BlackBerry World 2012 event.

Koke drives one of the five police cruisers in the world currently equipped with a BlackBerry PlayBook.

“There’s only one wireless handheld that’s approved for [secure government use] in Canada,” said Koke. “BlackBerry is the only solution that offers two-factor authentication out of the box.”

Security is a tremendous concern for police departments; the Internet and secure police databases can’t be accessed on the same device. However, the introduction of BlackBerry Balance—technology that creates a virtual wall between security-sensitive data and everything else on a device—addressed this.

“Cops won’t say work and play,” Koke explained, suggesting the two sides of the wall, “but secure work and work.”

Given that the department was already pleased with its 2008 rollout of BlackBerry handsets, and the challenge of slimmer new cars, “It wasn’t a leap to say, ‘Let’s put a tablet inside the car,’” said Koke, noting that these weren’t the department’s only motivations. Money was also a factor, as was convenience.

In a struggling global economy, police departments are being forced to operate on less but deliver the same results. In Canada, said Koke, department funding has been cut by 20 percent, which generally comes out of salaries and vehicles.

Rugged laptops, easily accommodated by the Crown Vic, have become de rigueur in police vehicles, but with mounting and other installation necessities—a good amount of connectivity stuff goes into the trunk—deploying one can conservatively cost $10,000 per vehicle, said Koke. A tablet, by comparison, runs $500 to $600. That savings, multiplied by the number of cars in a fleet, is likely to pique a lot of interest.

Also, “No officer ever takes the laptop out of the car,” said Koke.

The PlayBook, by contrast, is truly mobile. In an arrangement designed by a company called Mobile Innovations, it’s housed in an Otterbox case, mounted on the dash and paired with a wireless keyboard and a small machine that grabs information off a driver license. The mount works on spring, though, and so it takes just a second to grab the PlayBook and go—it fits in the cargo pants pocket of an officer’s uniform. Koke uses it to look up information, print tickets, submit daily reports on the state of the vehicle (a thing that’s done at the start of each shift), to record witness statements, and more.

The PlayBooks’ potential is also raised by the comfort young officer have with the BlackBerry platform. New recruits are trained to use the devices, and a BlackBerry smartphone is now as much a part of an officer’s uniform, said Koke, as his baton or handcuffs.

Wes Montee, a senior Government Market Development manager for RIM, explained that a recent VDC study found 90 percent of government-issued devices to be BlacBerry phones.

With every new product, said Montee, RIM looks for opportunities to maximize sales. As for opportunity for the PlayBook in new police crusiers, “It’s great to get in on the ground floor as things are moving forward,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of interest in this.”

Follow me on Twitter at @eWEEK_Michelle.

Safety, mobility, portability, and rapid access to data are crucial to public services, and this police cruiser is slick in its display of each of these features. Additionally, technology that is securely manageable is a must-have requirement for implementations in this industry – something that BlackBerry® Mobile Fusionbrings to the table when considering police-issued BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets. The best part? BlackBerry Mobile Fusion prepares these forces for the future with the capability to manage upcoming BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Check out the video below to view some of the features in action, and to hear it straight from the Mobile Innovation team behind this vehicle:

Fitting in well after Government Day on April 30th, this solution is an example of embedded BlackBerry technology and is still impressive the second time around. It’s like a slice of the future when it comes to law enforcement and mobile tech.

What’s your favorite aspect of the cruiser? Can you see applications for this in community safety and law enforcement? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Toronto, Ontario. Mobile Innovations President Gary Bauer announced his company’s Bronze Sponsorship for the upcoming BlackBerry World Conference to be held at the Marriott World Center, in Orlando Florida, April 30 to May 3, 2012. Rubbing shoulders with vendors such as HP, Information Week, Ingram Micro as well as many of the worlds biggest mobile carriers, the company intends to build on its performance as a 2011 winner of the Wireless Achievement Award for innovation in the public sector. At last year’s event the company won the coveted award as recognition for its outstanding mobile law enforcement work for the Chatham Kent Police Service.

Rather than presenting at a booth like most other BlackBerry World sponsors, Mobile Innovations will be demonstrating its suite of game-changing apps for mobile law enforcement from a Dodge Charger Police Enforcer, parked (legally of course) on the show floor. Seamlessly integrated for BES users who run BlackBerry smartphones, the apps are now available for BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 tablets as well as well as other BlackBerry platforms. “Our apps all run on BlackBerry smartphones, and now we offer the same functionality for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets,” explains Bauer. “So we’re ahead of the curve in anticipation of having our apps running on BB10 just as soon as the new devices become available.”

Mobile Innovations apps will be demonstrated live in-vehicle by veteran Chatham Kent Police Services (CKPS) Constable Ken Koke – an long-time user of the apps. “We have been using Mobile Innovations apps for over five years now,” says Koke. “And I can’t say enough good things about them. They make our job easier, safer and faster by turning our cruisers into police stations on wheels.” Koke will be joined in the cruiser by Bauer and Paul Grierson, VP Business Development for D&R Electronics, the company that has partnered with Mobile Innovations to provide upfits for all police vehicles including mounts, lights and sirens as well as many other on-board IT components for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in-vehicle platform.

The growing list of apps used by CKPS and over fifty other law enforcement agencies in North America and Europe allows secure 2-factor access to criminal and Records Management databases, license scanning and error-free eTicket issuing and printing. Officers can also access their BeatBlog, Vehicle Inspection Forms, Business Activity reporting and more. Mobile Innovations’ proprietary suite of solutions for secure tablets and smartphones is boosting productivity, increasing operational efficiencies and overcoming current budget challenges facing police services everywhere.

On Government Day, and during regular sessions, Constable Koke and CKPS IT specialists Anita Scott and Quentin Sprik will be presenting on behalf of their agency and Mobile Innovations, with Bauer in attendance to field questions from the audience. Their Public Services sector seminar will provide government personnel and law enforcement officials with the opportunity to hear firsthand about compelling on-the-beat user experiences with Mobile Innovation applications for the BlackBerry solution.

Mobile Innovations is a privately held company dedicated to enhancing law enforcement with the most advanced mobile data products available. Based in Niagara Falls, Canada, Mobile Innovations also has operations in Toronto and works with over fifty agencies across Canada, the United States and in the United Kingdom. Mobile Innovations is a member of the BlackBerry Alliance Program with six years of service developing and deploying advanced mobile solutions for BlackBerry devices.

Driven by widening demand from law enforcement agencies around the world for its MPA PlayBook 2.0 police apps, Mobile Innovations has built a case to help make its own case for cheaper, better and faster in-vehicle policing. Called MPACaseMaker, turnkey benchmarking kit is easily shippable via courier, virtually indestructible, weighs under 20 pounds and contains a PlayBook with BlueTooth keyboard, license scanner, ticket printer and camera connected via USB SmartHub.

After a cross-country tour in a PlayBook-equipped Dodge Charger and subsequent appearance as the featured BlackBerry Alliance Partner at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference (IACP 2011) in Chicago, Mobile Innovations experienced a rapid hike in interest from distant locales such the Caribbean, Africa and Sweden.

After witnessing the MPA In-Vehicle PlayBook 2.0 Platform working live during the tour or at the IACP Show, Police Services officials from outside North America began asking how Mobile Innovations’ MPA for PlayBook 2.0 and BlackBerry would run in their jurisdictions. Attracted by the combination of security and functionality, at a price point eighty percent lower than a ruggedized laptop up-fit, they wanted a way to see MPA PlayBook working in their beats with their own IT.

“Ironically, it often costs much more to fly, put up and pay one of our staff to do foreign-country benchmarking for our MPA PlayBook 2.0 platform, than it does to do an actual MPA PlayBook up-fit,” Explains Mobile Innovations President, Gary Bauer. “With the compact size and durability of the pieces, it made real sense to package our MPA setup into a Pelican hard-case so we could test and prove MPA effectively anywhere with out time or cast barriers.”

Supported remotely by the Mobile Innovations team, MPACaseMaker lets BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) users anywhere in the world accurately and cost-effectively bench test their vehicular IT requirements, without first having to invest in fully up-fitted cruisers. With MPACaseMaker, BES-equipped agencies assess their readiness by using the same in-vehicle peripherals to properly test and verify data access, run queries and input information, as well as perform license scanning and e-Ticketing in compliance with local courts and agencies.

Once installed, the full MPA for PlayBook in-vehicle platform turns the police cruiser into a police station on wheels. Officers in the vehicle can securely access and search multiple police data bases, relay information about their position and status, securely email, SMS and send alerts, scan drivers licenses and print traffic tickets; they can also quickly complete activity and vehicle inspection reports.

For more info please contact:
Gary Bauer – President
Mobile: 1-416-889-9997
Email: garyb(at)mobinnoco(dot)com

Mobile Innovations is a privately held company dedicated to enhancing law enforcement with the most advanced mobile data products available. Based in Niagara Falls, Canada, Mobile Innovations also has operations in Toronto and works with over fifty agencies across Canada, the United States and in the United Kingdom. Mobile Innovations is a member of the BlackBerry® Alliance Program with six years of service developing and deploying advanced mobile solutions for BlackBerry devices.