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Cops, Wifi, Treasure Hunts, And More!
Rob Flickenger writes "This month's SeattleWireless TV
show reveals how the Yakima County Police have built a wireless infrastructure using Cisco Aironet products. Utilizing omni and directional antennas, they cover 650 sq miles with just 8 access points. There is also a segment on the NzWireless group's wireless treasure hunt, where users roamed around the city plotting hidden access points set up for the hunt." Note the bittorrent link.
This was all I could find on http://www.co.yakima.wa.us is a dead link to Cisco from summer of 2001. http://www.co.yakima.wa.us/ts/news.htm
The big problem with widely scattered access points is user density (you can't have too many simultaneous users with so few APs) and physical alignment of the directional antennas. But you can use phased array antenna technologies to simultaneously increase the range, number of users, and security of access point installations. By electronically forming a narrow beam, the range increases, interference is reduced, and interception is more difficult. As a side "benefit" a phased array antenna could be used to track the bearing angle to each user and create directional lockouts to prohibit parking lot war drivers.
We've discussed this before here and here about products from Vivato.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
if i understand your tone correct, then here goes. if not, then i apologize.
if half of us slashdot readers knew exactly what cops go through day in and day out, we might respect them a little more. i've got two friends who are cops and the shit they have gone through while on their 12 hour shifts that rotate on a determined cycle. dont attack the enforcers, attack the lawmakers. they're just doing their job.
and to answer your question, its a communications system. its my understanding that most police offices use cell networks to transmit and receive information to their in-car laptops, which costs money. this wifi setup is a major money saver. my only concern is network sniffing. very sensitive data is transmitted across those airwaves. i imagine its much harder to sniff out cell signals than wifi, as you can purchase wifi recievers very very cheap.
if i have misinterpreted your comment, as it is easily done on message boards, my apologies. it's just that some people act like all cops are crooked and dishonest, and they are entirely mistaken.
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/witc/ao340a p/profiles/lnfyc_cp.htm
Company Profile
Wireless Network Helps
Yakima County Protect Community
The Lower Valley Wireless Public Safety Network, employing Cisco Aironet(R) technology, is giving law-enforcement agencies in Yakima County, Washington, a high-tech edge in crime prevention and resolution.
Yakima County is the second-largest land area and the seventh-largest population area in Washington state. It ranks first in the nation in the number of fruit trees, was recently ranked the 25th most-livable city in the United States and has also been designated a high-impact drug trafficking area. That inauspicious development was, in part, behind the creation in 2000 of the Lower Valley Wireless Public Safety Network.
The network consists of a series of antennas and radios arranged in a line-of-sight pattern that transmits and receives encrypted signals. These signals travel from the county courthouse in the city of Yakima southward through the Yakima Valley. The radio signals contain data from a central location that law-enforcement and public-safety agencies can access. This allows the agencies to share information and track lawbreakers throughout the lower valley in real time. The upper valley will be added to the network in the near future.
With five backbone sites in place overlooking the valley, the network reaches police departments in six lower valley communities: Wapato, Toppenish, Zillah, Grandview, Sunnyside, and Granger. County offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) are also on the wireless network, and the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are among several other law-enforcement agencies that have expressed interest.
The network's nodes are linked via nearly 30 Cisco Aironet 340 Series wireless bridges. Designed to ensure high-speed, long-range point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless connections between Ethernet networks, these bridges are not deterred by physical barriers or inclement weather, making them ideal for the Pacific Northwest's weather and terrain. Direct sequence spread spectrum technology enables a data rate of 11 Mbps, comparable to that of Category 3 cable.
High Costs Deflated Original Plan
Yakima County Technology Services originally designed a frame-relay-based solution but found it would cost thousands of dollars per month, according to George Helton, Director of Technology Services. "Then we came up with a design operating in the 2.4 GHz band. We engineered a wireless network emanating from the Yakima courthouse and using point-to-point aerials and radios to reach 80 miles down the valley. This lets us deliver data to police and other law-enforcement agencies, and it preserves all those thousands of dollars we would otherwise be spending for data circuits," he said.
"As we were implementing this, our radio engineer suggested that we could possibly make our data available to mobile users if we used an omni-antenna at each major backbone site. We did so and have created a wireless network where you can drive at 70 mph while still communicating on the network at 11 Mbps," Helton said. Officers can rapidly access traffic records, police files and other data through links with state and federal agencies. "We also are able to conduct video surveillance, hold network meetings, train Web cameras on officers during stops, and handle all sorts of data applications. The sky's the limit: Anything you can do in your office, you can do at your car."
Access for Mobile Officers
Not all law-enforcement agencies on the Lower Valley Wireless Public Safety Network have extended the wireless network to their vehicles. For some, the network is used exclusively for office work, but most plan to add vehicular capability eventually. Those who have made the network mobile did so by installing Cisco Aironet 340 Series wireless bridges in their patrol cars. The bridges allow officers to ac
That's ok, I used to live in yakima, actually still live fairly close, I went back for the holiday's I noticed red light camera's all over the place too. There was a big controversy a while back when the ypd put two officers on duty strictly for traffic infractions. Their orders were to issue as many traffic citations as possible and nothing else, and now there are several more of them. Figure in the traffic cops, the redlight camera's, (revenue, and revenue) and then the wireless network either is for a new revenue scheme, or they couldnt' figure out what to blow all their money on. (my opinion at lease)