Automatic vehicle location system selection

With the advent of commercial automatic location systems that have the potential of improving the management of mobile unit operations, law enforcement agencies are expressing a growing interest in the use of technology to improve their responsiveness to community needs, to enhance patrolman safety, and to provide data for the evaluation of operational strategies. When employed in police operations, an automatic vehicle location system becomes one element of the overall police system. The characteristics of such overall operations, the planned uses for the location system and even the city layout and topography influence system parameters and must be afforded consideration in the selection process. This paper describes the relationships between operational requirements and system performance parameters and identifies the technical and administrative factors that should be considered in the selection and deployment of cost-effective automatic vehicle location systems.