Law enforcement agencies across the country face a vast range of challenges everyday. From community expectations and higher public scrutiny to low staffing levels and limited budgets, even the most robust departments are searching for ways to improve morale and increase operational efficiencies. By leveraging smartphones to access online platforms, agencies are finding that officers can accomplish more in the field, making for faster investigations, safer emergency responses, improved community relations, and lower overhead costs.

That’s been the case in Monroe County, Missouri, where Sheriff Joe Colston has adopted mobile technology to maximize his department’s capabilities. With just nine full-time sworn deputies covering nearly 700 rural square miles, Colston needed to ensure his deputies had sufficient equipment to communicate, access information, and complete reports in the field.

Before becoming sheriff, Colston served as chief deputy, where he valued the utility of his department-issued smartphone. After reading about a pilot program at the Chicago Police Department (CPD) that used smartphones for in-vehicle computing, he thought he could stretch the smartphone’s utility further by leveraging cost-effective mobile technology as a force multiplier. Eventually, with the help of a local law enforcement block grant, Colston brought the same mobile infrastructure CPD was using to Monroe County: Samsung smartphones paired with DeX workstations.

With the new devices, Colston’s department became the first law enforcement agency in the country to use a smartphone as the primary computing device in patrol vehicles, field operations, and in the office. The devices can collect photographic evidence and act as body-worn cameras while retaining full smartphone functionality. Using Samsung DeX, the smartphone can dock with a larger touchscreen monitor and keyboard, providing the equivalent of an in-vehicle computer or desktop computer setup. Deputies can use their phone seamlessly across working environments, whether it be in a vehicle, in the field, or at the office. This mobility helps deputies collect, share, access, and analyze mission critical information; communicate with each other, supervisors, and other agencies; and maintain enhanced situational awareness.

“From my personal experience doing investigations, it’s been really helpful to be able to log into the system and see pieces of the puzzle that are relevant to what we’re doing,” Colston says. “We’re collecting more data, and the more information you have while you’re in the field, the more effective you can be.”
 
For example, the county’s 911 system uses a computer-aided dispatch that meshes with the DeX system and allows deputies to see calls from virtually anywhere and in real time, including mapped location data that provides turn-by-turn directions to incidents. The web-based records management system (RMS) is similarly integrated, meaning deputies can rely on a single device to access both systems.

Fewer trips back to the office and more time in the field increases community engagement and ultimately helps deter crime. It also gives deputies the ability to file reports remotely while information is still fresh in their minds. And phone-based AI features support live translation. The department has realized numerous other benefits, outlined below.

• Transcribing and importing texts into the RMS is now a seamless process since all information is on the same device.
• Streamlined evidence management reduces processing time and makes analysis more efficient.
• Geolocation data for each deputy improves situational awareness and deputy safety.
• Cost savings: For the price of just two rugged laptops, Colston secured nine vehicle setups.

Of course, none of this is possible without the right network coverage. Like in other rural areas, the lack of full wireless coverage in Monroe County was a big concern for Colston as he considered making the leap to smartphone-based computing. But after connecting with mobile365—and testing loaner devices at different times of day throughout the territory—Colston was convinced and switched from another carrier.

“Our mobile experience and operational capabilities improved significantly,” he says. “And 5G has done just what we hoped—delivering a much faster transfer of videos from the field and facilitating live-streaming of body-worn camera video when needed.” Indeed, the connectivity is reliable enough that fixed 5G internet from mobile365 was selected as the failover solution for 911 emergency dispatch in the event that the primary connection from the regional cable provider was compromised.

Like Chicago, the second-largest municipal police agency in the country, Monroe County is finding out just how much mobile technology can unlock for its personnel—right down to the station house doors Colston routinely opens with his smartphone. Though the challenges facing smaller cities and rural areas are not always the same as those faced by big metropolitan areas, each can use technology to access the right solution at the right time.

“I’m proud of our project and what we’ve been able to do with technology,” Colston says. “By embracing this transformative shift, we’ve not only enhanced our operational capabilities, but we have also managed to save taxpayers in this county thousands of dollars.”

With mobile365 for Government as a partner, public safety agencies of all sizes can harness the speed, reliability, and coverage of the nation’s largest 5G network to build powerful, scalable mobile platforms that enable agile, efficient, and effective policing—now and into the future.

• mobile365 ERT—Emergency communications planning, response, and recovery.
• Receive prioritized voice and data services in emergencies.
• Partnerships to empower public safety.