BIO-key® Awarded Mobile Data Contract for Ulster County, NY
Sheriff’s Office Expands County-wide Information Sharing Network
WALL, NJ, June 30, 2009 - BIO-key International, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BKYI), a leader in finger-based biometric identification and wireless public safety solutions, today announced a contract award from the Ulster County, NY Sheriff’s Office for additional licenses of BIO-key’s MobileCop® in-vehicle mobile data software. The Sheriff’s Office has been a MobileCop user since 2000. With this order, placed through BIO-key partner SHI, the Sheriff’s Office is extending mobile data to its entire fleet, as well as to patrol vehicles in the New Paltz and Lloyd Police Departments.
MobileCop enables deputies and officers in the field to obtain critical information directly from federal, state and local databases from laptops in their vehicles. This lets them make more informed decisions faster, since they no longer need to call a dispatcher and wait for a response. Additionally, receiving an FBI stolen vehicle or wanted person alert electronically before approaching the driver at a traffic stop, for example, helps protect officer safety. The Sheriff’s Office has also deployed PocketCop®, BIO-key’s complementary mobile data solution on BlackBerry smartphones, to its command staff and detectives.
With the addition of the New Paltz and Lloyd departments, Ulster County Sheriff’s Office now provides a MobileCop hosting service for 15 local and county law enforcement agencies, giving even the smallest departments mobile data access without the cost of maintaining their own separate systems. MobileCop users in all of the hosted departments can also communicate silently and securely with Sheriff’s Office MobileCop and PocketCop users and with each other. The network even seamlessly links patrol units in the Kingston Police Department, which has a separate mobile data system.
“By having every law enforcement agency tied in, we’ve increased the speed of communications across the entire county,” according to Deputy Thomas Lattin of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, the Technical Officer in charge of the network. “And because messages can’t be intercepted by a scanner, those communications stay secure.”
The system enables units and users in neighboring department to coordinate response with one another in pursuit and other mutual aid situations. As an added officer safety feature all logged-on users are automatically notified when any officer needs assistance or in any other emergency.
“With MobileCop and PocketCop, Ulster County has achieved what everyone in public safety and homeland security talks about - interoperability and real-time information sharing across agencies and jurisdictions,” added Ken Souza, Senior Vice President and General Manager of BIO-key’s Law Enforcement Division.
About BIO-key
BIO-key International, Inc., headquartered in Wall, New Jersey, develops and delivers advanced identification solutions and information services to law enforcement departments, public safety agencies, government and private sector customers. BIO-key's mobile wireless technology provides first responders with critical, reliable, real-time data and images from local, state and national databases. BIO-key's high performance, scalable, cost-effective and easy-to-deploy biometric finger identification technology accurately identifies and authenticates users of wireless and enterprise data to improve security, convenience and privacy and to reduce identity theft. Over 1,000 police departments in North America use BIO-key solutions, making BIO-key the leading supplier of mobile and wireless solutions for law enforcement. (http://www.bio-key.com)
