The patrol time machine

Deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will time travel this year.

By 2013, the agency will fast-forward the technology aboard its vehicles from 1980s-era nearly three decades to modern-day devices with the help of Raytheon Co.'s state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a range of mission support services.

Raytheon Co.'s Mobile Digital Computer System (MDCS) has been integrated into approximately 200 LASD vehicles, a transition for the agency's fleet that began last fall. Laptop systems are scheduled to be installed in 2,400 of the department's patrol cars, command post vehicles, prisoner transport buses, motorcycles and patrol boats to upgrade LASD's '80s-era tech.

A look at the leap from the agency's 25-year-old gadgets, Raytheon's new tech and similar modern in-vehicle systems.