Ahh, Los Angeles. The City of Angels. The glitter of Sunset Strip on a warm Hollywood night, the swaying of palm trees in the summer sun, eclectic Venice beach—a macrocosmic soup of languages, cultures, trends, food and fashion ensconced in a bowl constructed from the daily habits of more than 3.8 million Angelenos. Add in the surrounding greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, and it means more than 9 million people access Tinseltown, USA, on a daily basis—plus innumerable tourists—and all of the people need to be policed in an effective manner …
As iconic as the city, the LAPD has been charged with protecting citizens and visitors alike since 1853 (then known as the Los Angeles Rangers), with just about 10,000 officers. Do the math, and it's easy to see that each officer must be efficient as possible, and that each piece of equipment the department uses must serve as a functional tool and a force multiplier.
To quote a classic Missing Persons song, "Nobody walks in LA." For the most part, that includes the LAPD. When you're responsible for an area of approximately 469 square miles, you do a lot of driving, and the LAPD recognizes that the more efficient you make your vehicles, as well as safer and more spacious (because most units are two-officer), the better policing you can do.
When it comes to patrol vehicles, one of the key factors impacting efficiency is the choice of the vehicle model itself. Like many agencies, the LAPD has relied on the venerable Crown Vic for decades. It finds itself now in a position of replacing a fleet whose numbers dwarf most agencies. Because of the replacement costs, and the absolute necessity that the proper vehicle be chosen, the LAPD is still in the process of deciding which way to go. According to Lt. Dan Gonzalez of the Tactical Technology Section, the research arm for emerging technologies for the LAPD, the Caprice, Charger and Interceptor/Interceptor SUV are all current contenders.
Regardless of the final choice for platform, it must be effective and safe, and that's where Lt. Gonzalez and his unit come in with the current iteration of their technology test bed (pictured in this article using the Ford Interceptor as the platform).
History
One of the amazing opportunities afforded larger departments is the power to allocate resources to research "what's next" for their patrol force. It also helps when you have a forward-thinking, technology-minded chief, and that's exactly what the LAPD has in Chief Charlie Beck. With Beck's blessing, Lt. Gonzalez and company have been working on integrated vehicle solutions since 2008 with one goal in mind: a safer and more productive officer.
The first version of the advanced police vehicle utilized a Pontiac G8 GT, the inspiration for the current Caprice. The next version, in 2010, was the Chevy Caprice, and featured efforts to integrate the functionality of police equipment into the existing vehicle architecture to free up space in the cabin, enhance efficiency and—most importantly—get as much mounting hardware, arms, screens, and individualized hardware units for radar, lidar, etc., out of the front seat area to protect officers. The department subsequently unveiled the technology on the Chevy Tahoe in 2011 and the Dodge Charger in 2012.
According to Lt. Gonzalez, the results achieved with Chrysler were so positive that Ford approached the department to develop a similar system for its Interceptor/Interceptor SUV. Evaluation and testing of the unit seen here, is ongoing. New ideas and adaptations remain central to the project's development focus.
The Ingredients
At the time of this writing, the Interceptor features several innovative additions on the outside of the vehicle, and some really interesting ones on the inside.
First, the driver's side spotlight has a infrared (IR) camera mounted on top of the housing, allowing officers to take advantage of night vision using the spotlight housing, which affords a great deal of camera manipulation. On top of the car, an ALPR unit is attached to the light bar. Lt. Gonzalez says that the department has been using ALPR for about six years, and that they have registered a mind-boggling 160 million reads system-wide, with the technology proving to be very effective in tracking repeat offenders. The Federal Signal Valor light bar is also new—low profile, but also highly effective at providing a 360-degree light spread, which enhances vehicle visibility and officer safety.
Inside, the reconfiguration of the rear passenger seatbelts allows them to be mounted inboard, with "keepers" for the buckles mounted on the back of the Havis partition, and the buckle assembly mounted next to the door opening. This simple yet effective change means that officers no longer have to reach across a prisoner to seatbelt them in before transport. Sometimes, the most ingenious ideas are the simplest, and the reverse seatbelt mount is one of them.
Moving to the trunk, Lt. Gonzalez says that the LAPD's long-standing relationship with Havis resulted in the development and installation of a tray package that effectively removes a great deal of hardware from the front occupant area, and moves it to the trunk. This includes radar, video, the computer terminal, siren control box, license plate recognition (LPR) and whatever else the agency chooses to add to the vehicle. This mounting arrangement tucks up tight against the upper shelf in the trunk.
The LAPD has worked with Havis to construct similar designs for the Caprice, Charger and Interceptor SUV. This is an important point because Lt. Gonzalez says that, while the research efforts are targeted toward the needs of the LAPD, the larger picture is that these configurations could be offered as a purchase option for any department because they're not operational-hardware-specific. In other words, a radar or LPR unit from many different companies could be mounted on the tray, with the requisite wiring integrated into the harness that leads to the in-dash screen up front.
And that's really where this advanced police vehicle gets interesting. It features a multi-function display that has been integrated into a spot carved out of the center dash area. The control screen, also known as the Havis Integrated Control System, uses a central monitor to control multiple hardware options individually.
To create this innovative display, Havis and Ford worked with Lectronix, Crown North America and the National Safety Agency to co-develop a system designed to fit the Interceptor dash without modification or air bag interference. It maintains the flush profile of the OEM dash and provides a wide viewing angle for both driver and passenger operation. The system's molding secures a 12.1-inch ultra-durable, touch-screen display by Lectronix, which is daylight-readable and can be used with wet or gloved hands. Tactile buttons replace the factory HVAC controls, hazards and air bag indication, and also control the touch-screen display's power, mode, volume and brightness.
Additionally, Lectronix provided custom software to meet the LAPD's requirements and needs. It allows for full integration of radio connections, video inputs, GPS, laptops or tablets, peripherals, radar detection, LPR systems, relocated HVAC and factory controls, and other equipment. There is still a keyboard and center console mounted in the car, but what's most apparent is what's missing: no articulating metal arms, radar and LPR control units, a large MCT screen occupying a good part of the front passenger area and the requisite wires. Instead, the front area of the car is highly streamlined, more efficient, more spacious and most importantly, safer in a collision.
One thing that is especially important in the design of this system is that it's not auxiliary-hardware-specific, which means many different pieces of equipment can co-exist peacefully with one another because they don't need to "talk" to one another, despite the fact that the front screen can display several operating systems at once. So, while the screen may show the LPR, radio and video feed, each system is operating independently, with the only commonality being the screen output. This operational aspect is huge because it means the integrated dash solution could be potentially utilized by many agencies, no matter what gear they choose to use.
Lt. Gonzalez says that, with as many people who live in Los Angeles, and only 10,000 or so officers, even an increase of 3–4% productivity per officer can pay huge dividends. Placing all of the controls for multiple appliances into the same screen, and adding the IR camera, LPR, enhanced light bar and seatbelt modification, almost ensures a more efficient mobile environment.
Where Next
I say "almost" because the Interceptor/Interceptor SUV test beds, though unveiled in October 2013, still have a long way to go before deployment. "With a department this big, and the demands placed on our officers, we can't afford to make a mistake with new equipment," Lt. Gonzalez says. So, there is no "hard" date when the technology being tested will hit the streets as a standardized configuration for patrol officers.
Additionally, since the department hasn't decided which way to go with the new car choice, the final configuration is still up in the air, although the Tactical Technology Section has completed configurations for the possible choices. Regardless of vehicle choice though, one thing remains consistent: Lt. Gonzalez and his team are committed to and enthusiastic about researching, finding and testing new technologies to make LAPD officers more productive and, ultimately, safer in the field.
Editor's Note: For more information on the development of the LAPD advanced police vehicle, contact Lt. Gonzalez at [email protected].
