How Motorola Solutions camera, intelligence software make policing safer

The next time you come face-to-face with a suburban law enforcement officer, you might see more than a gun, badge, blue uniform and black sunglasses. You might see yourself.

In what Schaumburg-based Motorola Solutions sees as a key element of its future, the company is preparing to launch a new body-worn camera for police that, among its unique elements, features a 3.2-inch screen that displays what the camera is recording.

Its manufacturer, and the police officials that deploy it, hope the forward-facing screen will lead to better interactions between law enforcement officers and the citizens they serve by showing people exactly how they're behaving and making clear their actions are being recorded.

That's what police in Waukegan have experienced while testing Motorola Solutions' Si500. Along with the Elgin Police Department, Waukegan police have been using the body-worn cameras on a trial basis ahead of a wider rollout by the communications giant.

“There are certain people whose behavior will never change, recorded or not, but it helps push some people in the right direction,” Waukegan Deputy Police Chief Keith Zupec said.

To Tom

Guthrie, a Motorola vice president, the device is a bridge between the company's past and future. Sitting in the company museum on the Schaumburg campus where radios from decades past are on display, Guthrie said the Si500 represents part of a shift in how the company's equipment serves law enforcement.

“All the technologies we are surrounded by here are what we would call mission critical communications,” Guthrie said, gesturing to Motorola radios which have been used for decades by first responders in dangerous situations. “What it's moving to in the new data world is mission critical intelligence.”

Motorola Solutions is counting on the

cameras, along with new software programs designed to assist first responders and make their jobs safer, to help the company flourish as it sharpens its corporate focus on the $10 billion global market for public safety technology.

The cameras provide police with footage they can use in criminal investigations, as well as when examining complaints against officers. The device also provides voice communications, real-time video, still images, voice recording and emergency alerting. Police also hope they provide more transparency in their dealings with the public.

“We're not hoping to solve all problems with public contact with law enforcement, but we want to build that trust,” Zupec said.

The public's trust in the officers sworn to protect them has been tested in recent years as a result of well-publicized police shootings, like that of Laquan McDonald by now-suspended Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014. Earlier this month, the Chicago Police Department announced it would increase the number of body cameras it uses from 30 to more than 2,000.

How software helps

Guthrie said software that pairs with its body-worn

cameras securely uploads video from the officers to their department's servers so the clips can be used in investigations and court proceedings. It also prevents tampering by officers or anyone else.

Guthrie said Motorola also is releasing software allowing police to harness the power of the Internet and social media to detect where crimes are happening or could happen.

“The algorithms look through all of the mess (that is posted online) and throw out the cat videos and the food pictures and all that fun stuff,” Guthrie said. “If someone's using offensive language or there's something of danger going on, then the program can alert public safety.”

For example, the software would allow police to create a virtual perimeter around a location such as a high school and then monitor online postings from the area for threats or keywords such as “gun” or “bullying.”

Guthrie said the software also can watch video from local police

cameras, red-light cameras, cameras on municipal vehicles and body cameras to detect anything suspicious and send an alert to police.

In addition to detecting crime, the software can investigate a person's online activity to find out more about him or her, giving officers responding to a call potentially critical information about the circumstances or people they will encounter.

Future rooted in past

Motorola's recent focus on intelligence services to law enforcement is an example of the company's major transition over the last three to five years, said Tim Feeney, a business tech analyst at Morningstar.

“In the past, they had been a more broad-based communication equipment provider, but now they are focusing toward public safety,” Feeney said. “They have divested a number of business units to get more of a pure play public safety solutions profile.”

While other companies operate in the same public safety technology and communications market, none offer as wide a breadth of services, he said. Feeney gives the company high marks for its efforts to slash costs during their transition. Moving one-third of the employees on the 277-acre Schaumburg campus to a new headquarters in Chicago is part of that, Feeney said. The company said the move would give it “greater access to high-tech talent.”

While the company's decision to move around 800 employees to Chicago in August coincides with the transition Feeney identified, it also represents a return to the company's roots.

In 1930, the then-Chicago-based company began selling car radios to

police departments and municipalities, including the Illinois State Highway Police and Cook County Police.

Now 86 years later, the company hopes its newest law enforcement technology can help pave the way for decades to come.