Gregg secures $7.2 million for Project54

By Robert Emro, CEPS

UNH’s Consolidated Advanced Technologies (CAT) Lab will receive $7.2 million to bring Project54 technology to an additional 399 local and state police cruisers in the next two years.

One of the CATLab's many Project54 police cars.

To date, the state-of-the-art technology — which gives police voice-activated control of devices such as lightbars, sirens, radios, records checks, radar guns, video cameras, license scanners and GPS units — has been installed in 97 cars, most of them N.H. State Police cruisers.

The new funding will enable local police departments to put Project54 in a total of 244 vehicles, and will enable the state to put Project54 in a total of 252 vehicles.

“This is the final step before this technology can be utilized nationally,” said project co-director W. Thomas Miller.

“This expansion will give us a better picture of how the technology works in the real-life situations experienced by large and small departments across the state,” Miller said.

Longtime Project54 supporter U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) secured the money for fiscal years 2003 and 2004 to make New Hampshire a testbed for the new technology. Including this latest funding, he has secured a total of $21.8 million for the project.

Gregg, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the U.S. Department of Justice, stated, “Installing this cutting-edge technology in ‘Project54’ cruisers will allow our law enforcement officers to do their jobs more effectively while increasing the safety of the officers themselves. The roll-out of the cruisers to state and local law enforcement officers demonstrates that the initial focus of this project, assisting law enforcement officers, has become a reality. Members of New Hampshire law enforcement put their lives on the line every day. We should provide them with the best technology available, and these high-tech cruisers represent the next level in crime-fighting wireless communications.”

As part of the Project54 deployment effort, the CAT Program invited all local police chiefs in the state to an overview and demonstration of the system. The first 50 to respond were selected for an initial meeting on Jan. 5, and as a result of the enthusiastic response, a second meeting was held Feb. 5.

Sixty-nine different NH law enforcement agencies were represented at the meetings.

In addition to providing hands-free control of a vehicle’s electronics, Project54 is also working to integrate police cruisers into statewide data networks.

Program funds are being utilized to acquire data server computers and software for the N.H. Department of Safety in order to help automate the handling of motor vehicle and other law enforcement information within the state.

For the purposes of compliance with Section 511 of PL 101-166 (the “Stevens Amendment”), readers are advised that 100 percent of the funds for this program are derived from the U.S. Department of Justice. The total amount of federal funding involved is $21.8 million.