Case Study: How the Maysville PD Transformed Our Cruisers Into ‘Mobile Offices’ With Large-Screen Rugged Tablets

Rugged tablets were not new to us—we had been using tablets with a 10-inch screen for a few years, but the small display made it difficult to view diagrams, including images from our station’s computer aided dispatch (CAD) mapping system that we use on a regular basis. I knew the tablets would be more useful if the screen was larger and if officers could use them in patrol cars as well as outdoors for real-time information capture, retrieval and reporting. The tablets also needed to be rugged enough to stand up in a first responder environment and yet affordable enough to outfit our entire fleet of cruisers.

I was determined to find large-screen, highly durable tablets that were compatible with all the department’s software applications. So I decided to see what the armed services used for rugged tablets and read that the U.S Navy selected DT Research Rugged Tablets for a five-year deployment for Naval personnel working at various shipyards across the country. The DT Research tablets were giving Navy personnel on shipyard sites immediate access to data and images for reference and the ability to record and process new data in real-time. 

I know the U.S. military conducts rigorous tests for all the products they consider, so I had confidence that the DT Research tablets would be ultra-durable, highly reliable and secure. Based on the communications technology and software applications we have available, I wanted to see if the DT Research tablets could turn our police cruisers into mobile offices.

We started out with one rugged tablet and I told the officers to pound on it for a few months. Everyone was thoroughly impressed with it. So we decided to outfit the majority of our cruisers with DT313T tablets, a durable, multifunctional tablet with a vivid 13.3 inch capacitive touch indoor/outdoor display that is viewable in direct sunlight – a feature that officers find very useful when issuing traffic citations and writing collision reports. The large 13-inch touch screen makes a big difference when viewing our CAD mapping system.

We have the tablets mounted inside our patrol cars, but officers have the flexibility to pop them out and use as a handheld device or remove the tablet when the vehicle is not in use - which improves security. The DT313T tablets have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless communications, so we have seamless information capture, retrieval and transmission from patrol officers back to headquarters. Officers can check plates, scan driver’s licenses, take photos, write reports and check or serve warrants all from the DT313T rugged tablet. Now my team can do all their work from their cruiser – saving time and reducing report lag time.

The DT Research tablets are fully loaded, yet affordable and have improved our law enforcement process. The DT313T tablets we purchased are high performance, yet energy-efficient with an Intel® 8th Generation Core™ i5/i7 series processor running the Microsoft® Windows® 10 operating system. The DT313T tablets are FCC Class B, CE, RoHS and NIST compliant with BIOS available. Each tablet has a high capacity, hot-swappable battery pack for continuous operation and a built-in foldable tabletop stand. We have the tablets mounted into our patrol cars with a vehicle mount cradle, which also holds a keyboard.

DT Research has given us the opportunity to outfit our officers with top-notch mobile technology, while being fiscally responsible. We are planning to expand our use of DT Research tablets to outfit our entire fleet in the coming months.

Major Michael Palmer is from the Maysville, Kentucky Police Department and has contributed this story on behalf of DT Research.