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At one of Ocean City?s busiest events, police in attendance had an easy way to communicate with each other thanks to a system created by the University of Maryland?s A. James Clark School of Engineering.
Police from several Maryland jurisdictions utilized Capital Wireless Information Net (CapWIN) during the 2007 Delmarva Bike Week. Over 100,000 motorcycle enthusiasts flock to Maryland?s Eastern Shore every year for Delmarva Bike week and this year?s event September 13-16, was no different.
During this event, law enforcement officials were grateful that the CapWIN software allowed seamless communication across various agencies, said Lt. Earl W. Starner, commander of the Maryland State Police Berlin Barracks.
In addition to the Maryland State Police, agencies that utilized CapWIN during this event included the Ocean City Police, the Ocean Pines Police, the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, the Maryland State Fire Marshal?s Office, the Easton Police and the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center.
?With law enforcement, everything is about documentation and CapWIN is a very beneficial documenting tool,? says Commander Starner.
Commander Starner also commented on the main reason he and his troopers truly benefit from the CapWIN software - interoperability. During the course of the week, troopers in Berlin were able to instantly communicate, not only with the Troopers assigned to Ocean City, but with the other first responders participating in this event, via a secure chat room-like connection. The CapWIN program, enables emergency responders to communicate real-time across agencies and to perform on-the-spot searches in multiple databases while investigating crimes and other incidents.
?I am pleased CapWIN was able to benefit the troopers and other first responders who used it during Bike Week,? noted Tom Henderson, CapWIN Executive Director. ?The level of coordination amongst state and local law enforcement agencies during this event is an excellent example of what CapWIN is all about.?
About CapWIN
The Capital Wireless Information Net (CapWIN) is a regional Public Safety and Transportation Coalition supported by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering?s Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT) at the University of Maryland?s A. James Clark School of Engineering. Developed and governed by a regional group of public safety and transportation officials, the CapWIN system includes an application suite enabling: 1) incident coordination across agencies, regions, disciplines and at all levels of government; 2) secure one-to-one and group messaging as well as a skill-based searchable directory of individual first responders; and 3) access to operational data/resources, including regional transportation data and multiple state/federal law enforcement criminal databases, driver?s license photos, state and federal mug shots of wanted persons, violent gang members, and registered sex offenders.
As of today, approximately 4000 first responders from 69 agencies in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia can now access the CapWIN system.
For more information regarding CapWIN, please contact Carly Keane at 301.403.4601 or at ckeane@umd.edu. Please visit the CapWIN website at www.capwin.org and the CapWIN Training Website at http://www.capwintraining.org.
October 19, 2007
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