The Voyager applications at a glance
The Voyager Query application enables law enforcement officers to query state and federal databases to conduct records checks. Some of the records checks enabled by Voyager Query include license plate, name and date of birth, firearms, vehicle identification number, property, and driver's license checks, as seen in Figure A.

FIGURE A

Voyager Query allows law enforcement professionals to check a variety of records against state and national databases.

Users can also conduct "people" inquiries covering industry-standard wants and warrants checks, as well as driving record searches in both state and federal databases. Inquiries relating to motor vehicles include searches into the NCIC stolen vehicle system and department of motor vehicle databases in the vehicle's home state for registration and citation information. Inquiries for firearms and other common categories of property can search the NCIC stolen property system based on serial number.

Voyager Contact provides an electronic field interview data capture capability, including contact demographics data, enabling the user to collect and transmit information to a database, thereby eliminating manual data entry. Voyager Contact transmits the collected data to a centralized database where it's available to the agency for analysis and reporting. Through a browser-based version of Voyager Contact, command staff can generate basic statistics and conduct searches on the collected data.

Voyager Encounter provides a streamlined mechanism for recording contact demographics data needed for racial profiling analysis. Personnel complete a small form, filling out fields with information about a person stopped. This information is then wirelessly transmitted to a database that's expected to become a national database for profiling. TriTech's president has testified before Congress this year about this issue.

Voyager Citation is designed to provide automated ticket writing. It works concurrently with the Voyager Query application to check the vehicle or person in question. For example, officers can complete a moving or parking citation and beam it to an IR (infrared) printer on their belt. The ticket is created, the information is sent to the agency's collections database, and a query on the person is performed simultaneously to find any other related issues such as other tickets, warrants, etc. This eliminates the need for back-end data entry to issue a ticket. The application is being used by law enforcement agencies as well as private enterprises that ticket on private lots, such as large corporations and universities.

Getting the word out
The Brevard County Sheriff's Office in Florida has been using Palm IIIx handhelds running Voyager Query since July 2001 for its six motorcycle officers, like the one pictured in Figure B.

FIGURE B


Motorcycle officers use Palm handhelds to conduct record checks while in the field. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Systems Engineer Charlie Gray explains the key advantages that Voyager offers: "Our motorcycle officers can't carry laptops to conduct records checks the way our officers in vehicles can, so previously, the motorcycle officers had to call records checks into dispatch. But using handhelds is far faster and more cost effective than calling into dispatch."