Two significant technological improvements are underway at the Woonsocket Police Department.  The first is a comprehensive upgrade to digital radio systems and the second involves testing and purchasing a new license plate scanner.

The new technology will improve the department’s ability to communicate and locate criminals, according to Lt. Norman Galipeau, who oversees technology for the department.

The UHF and VHF wave radios that officers carry on their person and in their cars will be upgraded to digital radios.  Digital radios encode voice transmissions into streams of data.  Transmissions from digital radios can travel much greater distances than UHF and VHF radios.

“You can talk to somebody in South County on the radio and it’d be like they were in your backyard,” said Galipeau.  “The transmission is much clearer and you get less background noise.”

So far, every police cruiser has been given a single digital radio, but the department plans on giving each officer their own radio over the next few weeks.

Currently there are dead spots throughout the city with the old radios, said Galipeau, but officers have not found any with the new digital ones.

“[Officers] like the fact that it’s crystal clear and that they haven’t come across a dead spot in the city,” said Galipeau. “As you can imagine, officers don’t like to be out of touch, especially in emergency situations.”

The new radios will cost approximately $70,000 to $75,000.  Sixty percent of the cost is being paid for by the state and the other 40 percent will be paid by the city with forfeiture funds, or money taken in by the police department in connection with crimes.  The state will be responsible for maintaining the digital radios as part of their emergency management infrastructure, said Galipeau.

The digital radio system will allow Woonsocket police officers to communicate easily with the Rhode Island State Police as well as other Rhode Island municipal departments.  However, users trying to tune in to the police scanners will not have as much luck. Digital radios can be encrypted, making the network much more secure, according to Galipeau.

As for the license plate scanner, the Woonsocket Police have been testing one for the past month and are now in the process of obtaining a second scanner for testing.  After both are tested, a decision will be made on which one to purchase.

A license plate scanner is a two or three camera system that automatically reads license plates and checks them against a criminal database.  A cruiser outfitted with a scanner can check over a thousand license plates per day, depending on the number of cars that it drives by, said Galipeau.

Over the past month the department tested an ELSAG two-camera scanner.  The scanner checked license plates against the NCIC national criminal database, which includes suspects wanted on federal offenses, stolen vehicles and missing persons.  Within two days of having the system installed an officer located a stolen vehicle being driven around the city and was able to arrest its occupants, according to Galipeau.

Eventually it will be possible to check license plates with a Rhode Island registry as well as the national one.  Rhode Island State Police are currently working to update Rhode Island’s system to include individuals with revoked, suspended or cancelled licenses, Galipeau said. 

Galipeau also hopes that Rhode Island can coordinate with Massachusetts to share their information so officers would be equipped with RI, MA, and national databases.

The scanner will be used throughout the city on public roads, and will cost between $15,000 and $20,000 according to Galipeau.  Providence is the only other city where scanners are currently being operated. 

Another company, Federal Signal, will be installing their three-camera system on one of the department’s cruisers sometime in the next month.  The department will be able to test that scanner for two months and then will decide which system to purchase.