“Smart Car” May Be The Future For Police Cruisers

The New York Police Department is testing a prototype “smart car” from a program called NYPD2020 that can do a lot more than helping officers patrol in a comfy manner. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal (via Tech Spot), the high-tech cruiser can record license plate numbers and addresses through infrared monitors mounted on its trunk, and has air sensors and surveillance cameras capable of sending real-time information to police headquarters.

The data scanned through infrared monitors will be checked against a crime database that contains records of vehicles that are stolen, involved in crime, or the ones that have outstanding infractions. At present, the data collected is stored for an indefinite period, “though that will likely change”, according to Deputy Inspector Brandon del Pozo, who is in charge of the program.

The prototype car is also capable of printing reports and scanning barcodes, The Verge reported. According to del Pozo, the future cruisers might include facial recognition sensors and fingerprint scanners, though he did not explain how these technologies would be used. Although some of these technologies are already present in some squad cars, the idea behind the prototype is to test all of them in conjunction.

The smart car is one of the dozen projects included in the program, which was prepared in November for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Though the department has been testing the prototype for about a year now from the city’s 84th Precinct in Brooklyn Heights, it’s up to incoming police commissioner William Bratton, who will take charge on Jan 1, 2014, how the program moves forward.

Thank you Tech Spot for providing us with this information
Image courtesy of Tech Spot