The LAPD says the NICE system will let them find a record of a phone call almost instantly. A growing number of U.S. police departments are using advanced communications technology developed in Israel to improve their law enforcement and public safety capabilities.

Two new Los Angeles Police Department 911 dispatch centers will be using digital voice recording technology developed by NICE systems, headquartered in Ra’anana, and selected by the Motorola Company for use by all of their public safety and government customers.

The new recording systems, which replace reel-to-reel analog tape recorders, will dramatically speed the task of locating and retrieving recordings required for evidentiary or investigative purposes and will help reduce the backlog of recording requests. Each month, the department receives approximately 1,500 requests for the recordings, requiring at least six full-time employees.

LAPD’s Deputy Chief and Chief Information Officer Roger Ham said, “With our older system, finding and retrieving calls was essentially a long manual process. The NICE system will let us find a record almost instantly. It promises to make the whole process dramatically more efficient, and help us better serve our diverse community.”

The deal was announced by NICE Systems earlier this month. The NICE solutions will enable the LAPD to record radio transmissions and telephony on its networks. The solutions are designed to give LAPD the ability to reconstruct incidents, for both training purposes and to assist in resolving potential legal issues that might develop later, either about the incident itself or about the official handling of it.

The NICE recording solutions will be used in two new LAPD centers, one in downtown Los Angeles and the other, to open late next year, in the suburban San Fernando Valley. NICE says the system, when completed, will record 800 simultaneous phone and radio conversations, and allow LAPD officials to store all of the call information for 21.6 million phone calls and radio conversations handled by the centers every year, for up to three years.

“We’re pleased to be working with Motorola on this major undertaking,” said NICE Systems public safety vice president Chris Wooten said. “LAPD is one of the largest and most prestigious police departments in the world with stringent call recording requirements, which we were able to meet. Just as important, our systems give them the ability to upgrade and expand recording capacity without extensive new capital outlays.”

Meanwhile, in Racine County, Wisconsin the police department is using products developed by Israeli-based RAD Data Communications to implement a wide area network (WAN). The network is designed to provide enhanced voice and data communications throughout the county, which will enhance public safety and other local governmental needs.

“A major part of the project supports communications that protect life and property,” explains Racine County WAN Specialist Kerry Kriegel. “Delays due to system failure are not acceptable.”

Since Racine County did not want to rely on the dark fiber already running between the police and courthouse buildings (“We learned last year how vulnerable the fiber is to a shovel,” says Kriegel), a free space optics laser link was installed by System Support Solutions with the help of RAD’s value-added reseller, AccuWare Inc.

“Racine County has been using RAD equipment for many years and to date, not one unit has failed. So when I needed a system that could provide me with five 9s (99.999 percent) reliability, I started with RAD,” said Kriegel.

“These boxes have been thoroughly tested with simulated failures of each component,” he added. “I am happy to say that the RAD equipment performed even better than expected. Not one packet was lost during the transition from fiber to laser or from laser to fiber.”