Revving up the powerful engine of a  police package Dodge Charger loaded with BlackBerry PlayBook and Mobile Police Assist (MPA) Software, Mobile Innovations President and founder Gary Bauer kicked off the Eastern leg of their cross-country “Goin’ Mobile” demo tour in Montreal this morning. Riding shotgun with Bauer is Colin Bennett a representative of D&R Electronics, the company who up-fit the vehicle with mounts, lights, sirens and IT to complete Mobile Innovations’ in-vehicle platform.

Covering over 2500 km and visiting a dozen police agencies between Montreal and Halifax, Bauer will demo his company’s MPA in-vehicle PlayBook solution with emphasis on their new MPASmartHub feature, which connects in-vehicle driver’s license scanner, keyboard, lights and sirens control, camera to the BlackBerry PlayBook. Capable of connecting up to 8 peripherals through multiple USB ports, the MPA for Playbook Platform turns any cruiser into a police enforcement centre on wheels for a fraction of the cost of conventional in-vehicle laptop up-fits.

“Just last week, we submitted a bid to up-fit 700 police cruisers with our solution.” explains Bauer. “They called us back to tell us our bid was one tenth of the next bid, and to ask us if we’d made a mistake. This reaction is typical.  But when we point out that a PlayBook costs $200 while a ruggedized laptop goes for $5,000 or more, they begin to get the picture.”

While currently focused on law enforcement agencies, Mobile Innovations tour has garnered much attention from emergency services and utilities along the way.

“With our Goin’ Mobile tour we hope to dispel any doubts about the game-changing nature of our MPA In-Vehicle platform, and that it really is not only better, but cheaper and faster than any other solution out there,” said Bauer. “Not just for police, but for municipal, utility, EMS and fire departments as well.”

The Chatham-Kent Police Services Board has congratulated the team that implemented its Blackberry program while a key government official suggests a number of other police services will soon be moving in a similar direction.

John Dimarco with the Correctional services told the board a key to using the devices is both its portability, and the fact that is secure.

He says a number of municipal police services “and the OPP are already looking at this”.

Dimarco says the province likes the program because it keeps front line officers in touch with more information at all times.

Story by Simon Crouch, Blackburn News.

http://www.ckpsannual.com/about-us/message-from-the-chief/

More information on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

The Sarnia Police Services Board approved the $48,996 project in a special meeting Friday. The force will soon acquire 100 phones free of charge as part of a three-year contract with Telus Communications. Each BlackBerry will be equipped with a voice and data plan valued at $59 per month.

Read the complete post: http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3334394

In May 2011, at the BlackBerry World Conference in Orlando, Florida, Chatham-Kent Police Service (CKPS) won the BlackBerry Achievement Award For Public Sector Innovation. The CKPS was chosen by a panel of RIM judges for demonstrating outstanding innovation and measurable business value with their Mobile Innovations Mobile Police Assist (MPA) 2 Factor authentication solution.

One month later at the 2011 Municipal Information Systems Association Conference in Toronto, the CKPS won a MISA Award for providing significant IT innovations to improve service delivery to the citizens of Chatham-Kent through its implementation of Niche and MPA solutions.

Last week, while promoting a demo tour of Mobile Innovations MPA for PlayBook at Showcase Ontario in Toronto, the CKPS picked up an Award of Merit for public service partnerships that deliver innovative outcomes for more effective and responsive service to the citizens of Ontario.

“It’s great to see the great results that stem from our long-standing relationship with the BlackBerry team at Chatham-Kent.” Said Gary Bauer, President and founder of Mobile Innovations. “Their willingness to move ahead and innovate with us has given CKPS on of the best, fastest and most secure mobile law enforcement solutions in the world, better than those you’ll find in cities with budgets and populations many times bigger.”

Windsor, Ontario – August 22, 2011 – Mobile Innovations announced today Mobile Police Assist (MPA) for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet on showcase at the 2011 Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) Conference taking place this week – August 21 to 23 — in Windsor, Ontario. Mobile Innovations President Gary Bauer is at the conference to personally demonstrate MPA’s powerful in-vehicle records and data management capabilities in an equally powerful 2011 Dodge Charger police cruiser outfitted by D&R Electronics with BlackBerry PlayBook.

Mobile Innovations has partnered with D&R Electronics which specializes in storage & mounting systems, on-board IT, lighting arrays and rooftop message boards for police vehicles. As a BlackBerry® Alliance Partner, Mobile Innovations worked closely with D&R to put together a functional concept vehicle solution featuring the new BlackBerry PlayBook for this year’s CACP annual conference. MPA for BlackBerry PlayBook is slated for general release in early 2012 after a tour of two Dodge Charger concept police cars across North America throughout the remainder of this year.

Like MPA for BlackBerry smartphones, MPA for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet provides data access and entry for the NICHE RMS police records management system, the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), GPS mapping and tracking, as well as dictation for a total mobile law enforcement solution. Each BlackBerry PlayBook armed with MPA software provides its user with a secure, comprehensive and cost-effective alternative to more costly ruggedized laptop solutions typically used today.

“The really big difference with our new Mobile Police Assist for BlackBerry PlayBook compared to its BlackBerry smartphone counterpart is that it offers a complete in-vehicle dashboard-mounted touch screen solution, as opposed to a complete in-hand solution for smartphones,” explains Bauer. “In smaller vehicles, a tablet is cheaper and better than a laptop. All of our clients are asking us about what we can do about putting PlayBooks in their cruisers to round out their secure mobile data capability which together make a powerful all-in-one mobile solution. We can’t wait to take them on the road.“

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.

To see an MPA for PlayBook Demo:
CACP — Booth No. 625
August 21-24, 2011
Caesar’s Windsor

For more information:
Gary Bauer
tel: +1 416 889 9997
email: garyb@mobinnoco.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 thirty agencies across Canada, the United States and in the United Kingdom. Mobile Innovations is a RIM Alliance partner with six years of service developing and deploying advanced mobile solutions for Blackberry^TM.

Thanks to a close working relationship with Mobile Innovations, Niche RMS also supports BlackBerries. MPANiche, Mobile Innovations core product – puts NICHE onto BlackBerry, effectively putting the sum of all police knowledge at the user`s fingertips. With support from the NICHE team.  Mobile Innovations developers are now actively involved in putting Niche functionality onto PlayBook. With Mobinnoco taking the lead and a Beta test well under way, a fully functioning version of MPANiche for PlayBook is slated for release later this year.  Watch for more at the 106^th Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Windsor Ontario, August  21 to 24, 2011.

by Kevin Michaluk on 19 Jul 2011 01:14 PM

If you watched the video last week of me stealing a BlackBerry Bold 9900 from RIM’s headquarters in Waterloo, you also saw me get caught and tossed into a cop car. Keen CrackBerry eyes may have noticed that wasn’t just any ‘ole police car, but rather Mobile Innovation’s 2011 Dodge Police Interceptor concept car. Created by Mobile Innovations and featuring a ton of gear from D&R Electronics, the highlight of car is that it features BlackBerry PlayBook Integration. Be sure to check out our preview post on this, and then watch the video above for my real-life tour.

As you’ll see in the video, the BlackBerry PlayBook integration here is really solid, with the PlayBook pretty much running all of the car’s cop-tastic features, including all the lights and sounds. You can of course use it too for running checks on people. BlackBerry PlayBook owners jonesing for a bluetooth keyboard will want pay close attention to the video… especially at the 3m35s mark. Pretty cool, hey?

I know nobody wants to end up in the back of a police car, but at least if it were ever to happen to me (again), I’d definitely want it to be a cop car rocking a PlayBook!

Video for mobile devices:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7w9XgCsabE