PHILADELPHIA- Philadelphia
Housing Authority Police have become the first and only police
force in the city with Global Positioning Systems in all of their
marked vehicles. The system is designed to increase the
department's efficiency and provide cost savings to
PHA.
GPS tracks the movement and location of
all police vehicles at all times. The system allows police to
efficiently manage calls for service based on the location of the
police cars, to produce a timely response.
The system pinpoints a vehicle's location
within several feet and can also track a vehicle's speed, and stop
and start patterns. With GPS, the PHA Police Department now has a
new tool for combating crime and managing calls for
service.
"It's a good way to protect our officers,"
says PHA Police Chief Rich Zappile. "It's a good way to keep track
of fleet costs. GPS allows police to direct resources in a manner
that is both flexible and responsive to the dynamic and changing
nature of public safety operations."
In addition to tracking a vehicle's
location, GPS technology improves efficiency. The system monitors
an engine's performance measurements such as idle time, and
gasoline usage. It alerts the fleet manager, via e-mail, of engine
malfunctions in real time.
"PHA uses advanced technology in every
operating department within the agency. That's part of the reason
we have been able to reduce our workforce by more than 50% since
2000. The GPS system will allow us to use our police as efficiently
as possible, and we intend to examine other areas for using GSP as
well," said PHA Executive Director Carl Greene.
Some of the other benefits of the system
being deployed by PHA include:
§ GPS Tracking History - allowing a review
up to 90 days of vehicle location history online (where the vehicle
has been and for how long; miles per gallon; vehicle speed
etc…)
§ Geofencing - allowing supervisors to
monitor vehicle movement into and out of restricted areas, and
create geographical boundaries to monitor fleet
whereabouts.
§ Detecting Problems at an Earlier, Less
Expensive Stage - Problem Alerts are e-mailed to managers when a
performance problem is reported by the vehicle's computerized
diagnostic trouble code. This will reduce excessive or unnecessary
billings by repair vendors.
§ Accident Reduction, Lower Insurance
Claims, and Improved Driver Safety - A vehicle's speed is directly
monitored from the engines of fleet vehicles. This will enhance the
safety and performance of the fleet. The installed hardware also
provides fuel consumption for each vehicle, as well as notifying
the manager of scheduled maintenance and miles per gallon used by
every vehicle.
The challenge for PHA will be to harness
the power of GPS for other PHA vehicles to improve service to
residents and further lower agency costs.
The system PHA is using was purchased from
Networkcar, the leading provider of around-the-clock services for
remotely monitoring the performance, location and security of fleet
and consumer vehicles.
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PHA Police Lt. William Creamer tracks police vehicles through the
department's new Global Positioning System software.
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The PHAPD's new Global Positioning System software tracks vehicles
whether inside or outside the city. The red squares represent
vehicles that are stationary while the green dot represents a
vehicle that is moving. |
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