Philadelphia Police get new mobile investigation vans

Today the Philadelphia Police Department catapulted into the 21st Century: unveiling two new Mobile Investigative Response Vehicles, that may help them catch criminals.
The insides of the vans really do look like office cubicles: complete with computers, phones, a printer, and a fax machine.

Today the Philadelphia Police Department catapulted into the 21st Century: unveiling two new Mobile Investigative Response Vehicles, that may help them catch criminals.

The insides of the vans really do look like office cubicles: complete with computers, phones, a printer, and a fax machine.  The equipment will give the officers and detectives access to databases of mug shots, criminal records, and intelligence information that they’d usually have to go back to the office to pull up.

Gery Cardenas is the Director of Information Technology for the Police Department “The vehicle here uses all of the commercially available modes of communication to public safety today: those would be wi-fi ready to go to wi-max as soon as we’re ready to use that, and also a satellite dish so we can use satellite communciations for both data and voice.”

The vehicles were funded with money from asset forfeiture and Department of Justice grants.