WALL, N.J., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BIO-key International, a leader in finger-based biometric identification and wireless public safety, today announced a contract award from the Collin College Police Department to deploy MobileCop, BIO-key's wireless query and messaging solution for law enforcement. Collin College is located in Collin County, one of the fastest growing jurisdictions in the Dallas, Texas metropolitan area.
As is the case with most campus police departments in the United States, officers in the Collin College Police Department are licensed peace officers. They have county-wide jurisdiction and work under the same authority as local law enforcement personnel. "Campus law enforcement faces the same challenges that any police department does," according to Collin College Police Department Captain Michael Gromatzky. "With more than 44,000 students spread across five open campuses with day, night and weekend classes, we're like a small city."
With the deployment of BIO-keys' MobileCop solution, Collin College law enforcement officers will now be able to obtain critical information - while at a traffic stop or other incident - on a person or vehicle directly from the Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (TLETS) using laptops in their patrol cars. "The biggest benefit of MobileCop is that officers now have at their fingertips the information they need to make the right decision, without having to call a dispatcher over the radio to run a plate or check an ID," Captain Gromatzky pointed out. "Previously, if the radio was tied up, the officer was tied up too."
The ability for dispatchers and officers to use MobileCop to communicate with each other also serves the unique demands of campus law enforcement. "We value student privacy very highly," added Captain Gromatzky. "Confidential data on a student broadcast over the radio can be overheard or even picked up by a scanner. Using MobileCop's silent, secure messaging feature, a dispatcher can send critical information on a student involved in an incident, for example, to the responding officer without that risk."
MobileCop is used by campus police on some of the largest campuses in the country, including the University of Kentucky, the University of Maryland, Indiana University and Boston University. "We're pleased to have Collin College join the many colleges and universities that rely on our mobile data solutions to help protect their students, faculty and staff," said Ken Souza, Senior Vice President and General Manager of BIO-key's Law Enforcement Division. "And we're continuing to expand our campus safety product offerings with the recent introduction of our MobileCampus secure messaging solution. Now administrators and faculty can communicate directly with campus police and with each other using BlackBerry smartphones, so everyone can share information quickly and respond effectively to any on-campus incident."
