WALL, N.J., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BIO-key International, a leader in finger-based biometric identification and wireless public safety, announced today an add-on contract from the Lincoln, NE Police Department. The award was funded through a federal Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) grant from the Department of Homeland Security and includes additional licenses of MobileCop, BIO-key's laptop-based mobile data product.
Under terms of the contract, MobileCop will be made available to law enforcement agencies throughout Southeastern Nebraska, which will enable officers to access outstanding warrants, stolen vehicle reports and other critical federal and state data directly from their patrol vehicles. The deployment of additional MobileCop licenses to these agencies represents the first phase of a new regional system, to be hosted by the Lincoln Police Department, which will ultimately serve as many as twenty-seven agencies across thirteen Nebraska counties. Officers from different departments will be able communicate with each other silently and securely in mutual aid situations, meeting the region's interoperability objective as required under the PSIC grant.
The award also provides the Lincoln Police Department with licenses of BIO-key's recently launched SecureMessage(TM) data communications software. SecureMessage delivers fully-encrypted, scanner-proof text-based messages, announcements and email to groups within departments thereby allowing first responders to communicate with each other. SecureMessage will be initially deployed to dispatchers and other staff in public safety communications centers located throughout the counties utilizing the MobileCop licenses.
Lincoln Police Department Sergeant, Todd Beam, stated, "What attracted us to SecureMessage was the ability to integrate the communications centers involved in the regional mobile data network into a broader command and control strategy." Sergeant Beam added, "In many cases today, these centers can only communicate with each other by phone, which makes it difficult to collaborate and share information."
SecureMessage can link emergency management, police, fire, rescue and other responder agencies, as well as hospitals and other support resources. "We, like almost everyone else, have made significant progress with interoperable radio communications," Sergeant Beam added. "SecureMessage will allow us to reach an even higher level of interoperability in the future by incorporating emergency operations centers, incident command posts and other branches of our regional Incident Command System in a way that radio communications is not well suited to accomplish. SecureMessage will give us a much more targeted ability to communicate - as broad or selective as we need to be - in responding to an incident."
Ken Souza, Senior Vice President and General Manager of BIO-key's Law Enforcement Division, noted, "Utilizing radio communications as the primary communications tool requires agencies to pay for and deploy extra units to personnel who may use them only during emergencies. SecureMessage runs on the devices they already have and use everyday, including BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphones, as well as laptops and desktops. As a result, everyone gets the message."
