For today's public safety personnel - whether police, fire or EMS - information is everything. Having the right data at the right time can mean the difference between life and death. The importance of real-time information in the field cannot be overstated. Things move quickly, and if responders are operating with old data – even a few minutes old – the results can be disastrous.

There is an increased demand for mobile "geo-policing." Field users want the same maps they use in the office to go with them out into the field. Laptops are great, but you can't put them in your pocket. Freeance Mobile and BlackBerry smartphones are a great way to put maps in the hands of people in the field. Portable, fast, and packed full of features such as GPS, email and digital cameras.

With Freeance Mobile, you can do the following right from your BlackBerry smartphone:

• Get fast live maps and data outside of vehicles
• See location of active calls for service by beat district
• Go to location (address) and show building/owner information.
• View current parolee lists per building/address
• Pull probation records every hour
• See outstanding warrants per building
• Reporting - shots fired, gang members, service calls, crime events, officer location and more
• Bring up mug shots when you're on the move
• View active fire information, residency and inspection data
• Reference rental registers, section 8 vouchers, quality of life measures, vacant buildings

Freeance Mobile software lets you use the same data as in your mobile data terminals – live from your data warehouse – on a BlackBerry smartphone. You can even hotlink to web services, parcel data, offender databases, and school data.

Emergency/Disaster Management

During response and recovery, situational awareness is critical. GIS provides actionable information through a real-time common operational picture that integrates weather and traffic feeds with the necessary local data to map the emergency, evaluate damage, and identify impacts. Field data captured with Freeance Mobile software completes this operational picture.

Simplify Post-Event Assessment and Inspections

Build easy-to-use forms for responders with precisely the right fields they need. Straightforward pull down values ensure data are correctly entered from the field without technology overload. Change forms on the fly as conditions change and push them to responders in the field. Take digital photos of damaged items and send them back to the central GIS with locations automatically tagged.

Sharing Live Information Brings New Dimension to Situational Awareness

The ability to share information with other agencies is critical. Many incidents require a response from several jurisdictions, including local, state and federal. However, disparate radio systems often prevent neighboring agencies from communicating with each other seamlessly. With Freeance Mobile software, on-scene photos can be sent to a command post. Hazardous materials data can be overlaid on maps. Locations of people and resources can be tracked, enabling more efficient deployments. All on convenient, secure BlackBerry smartphones.

For example, in the case of a damaged building, responders can send real time situational data to police, fire, EMS, public works, building inspectors, public information and other departments. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture painted with voice, photos and GIS mapping is worth a million.

Updating GIS mapping from the field is incredibly fast and easy. Simple maps equal simple work. You'll realize reduced response times and costs.

Automated Vehicle Location on BlackBerry Smartphones

See your AVL vehicle tracking live on BlackBerry smartphones.

Freeance Mobile lets you to easily take your existing AVL system database and GIS maps and use them on your standard BlackBerry smartphones.Start accessing your AVL vehicle tracking when you need it most: in the field, on the go, virtually anywhere outside the office.

Wildfire Management

Today, first responders have access to intelligent maps—maps built using databases and powerful modeling capabilities. GIS provides firefighters with detailed information when and where they need it for a faster and safer response. Freeance Mobile software, with little technical skill required from fire personnel, and a BlackBerry smartphone will conveniently provide detailed information to answer questions such as the following:

• Where is the fire located?
• What is the best way to access the fire?
• What is the terrain and fuel type?
• Where are the evacuation routes?
• What are the hazards to responding units?
• What are the values at risk?
• Whose jurisdiction is the incident within?

Recovery Operations

GIS enables fire personnel to conduct rapid and accurate damage assessment and rehabilitation requirements after an emergency. Wildfire staff members use GIS for the collection, analysis, and display of various types of post incident data. GPS-enabled BlackBerry smartphones can be used to collect accurate damage information from the field, which can then be integrated into a central GIS database for comprehensive analysis and display.