Speeders beware! Tuxedo Police go high-tech
Tuxedo - The Town of Tuxedo, long known for stern traffic control along the Route 17 corridor and elsewhere throughout the sprawling municipality, has been adding high-tech tools to the police department’s traffic management and law enforcement capabilities. In addition to fore and aft radar on each cruiser, a new tool recently acquired by the Tuxedo Police enables the police cruiser to automatically scan a target vehicle’s license plate. The License Plate Recognition System by Remington Elsag Law Enforcement Systems and Remington Arms electronically loads the plate number into the cruiser’s computer. The system is based on character-recognition technology and infrared scanning with a scan rate of 30 plates per second under almost all weather conditions, day or night. During the first month the license plate scanning system was implemented, 45 arrests were made. Police Chief Dan Carlin was impressed: when a passing car was zapped by the scanner, a recorded voice immediately stated the alert: “Stolen Car.” “I wanted to get this department into the 21st century. Officers’ safety is based upon up-to-date information on a car that’s stopped,” Carlin said. “When you run a safety check, the information is right there.” He also noted this makes the officer “more professional, no guessing, and errors are reduced.” Tuxedo covers an area of approximately 45 square miles with an estimated 100 miles of road to patrol. The department averages 15,500 road miles covered per month. The history of change The increase in police technology in Tuxedo began a few years ago following the reclassification of Route 17 to a Heavy Truck Access Route. That enabled tandem tractor-trailers access to the high speed, winding thoroughfare; the police acquired portable weight scales to randomly check trucking adherence to state and federal laws. Then came on-board audio and video within each patrol car. This feature enabled each traffic stop to be recorded for a follow-up analysis to aid in both understanding a roadside traffic incident and review of the police officer’s handling of the affair. The go-to guy’ Providing state-of-the-art technology for public health and safety comes with a substantial price tag. However, Tuxedo Police Sergeant John Norton managed to secure approximately $70,000 in state and federal grants to enable Tuxedo to benefit from the latest innovations. Norton, with an affinity for data processing technology along with support from a progressive-thinking police organization was “a key player” in acquiring and implementing the technology, according to the police chief. Now the department has added leading-edge technology to acquire and electronically process and record information in a real-time, instantaneous manner. Each of the department’s fleet of seven vehicles is equipped with on-board computers. Besides providing an efficient method of producing and printing traffic tickets with an onboard printer, the Panasonic Tough Book tablets provide access to a host of information resources that previously would only be available in a voluminous set of hardcopy manuals. HAZMAT , FEMA and DMV For example, an officer on patrol can immediately review vehicle and traffic laws, penal law, the town code, the entire HAZMAT (hazardous materials) Emergency Response Guide book and a variety of other important health and safety related documents. Incident reports are formatted to reduce error and to enable the efficient recording of important information. Besides linkage to the department’s stationhouse file server, the computer opens a window into the state TraCS (Traffic and Criminal Software) database. The TraCS system is interfaced with the New York State Police Information Network (NYSPIN) where data is automatically downloaded to the department’s file server enabling mobile access to information regarding all recently stolen vehicles and suspended driver licenses and vehicle registrations in New York on a daily basis. On-board document scanners enable the immediate capture of bar coded information on a driver’s license or registration. All information is electronically available to local courts, state police and the DMV. Other high-tech equipment in use in Tuxedo are handheld thermal imaging devices, complements of Federal Homeland Security funding, that are used for search and rescue and have perimeter security applications. Additionally, to solve a long-standing problem between emergency responders that previously were unable to radio communicate between organizations due to incompatibility of equipment are interchangeable communications gateways that provide a bridge to enable communications between emergency services and government officials. Portable radiation readers are available to detect even small amounts of atomic radiation. The East Village portion of Tuxedo is within the 10-mile radius of the emergency planning and evacuation zone for the Indian Point Nuclear Generating Plant in Buchanan.