Un-tethered Officer Project

A Collaborative Research Project Between the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UNH and Mitretek Systems

Private On-Line Documentation:

Common Engineering and Development Area

Richard Messner

Dragan Vidacic

Pavlo  Melnyk

Frank Hludik

Mitretek Systems

First responders to a major incident include law enforcement, fire, and EMS, often from multiple jurisdictions. Accurate information from all sources needs to be rapidly collected and made available to follow-on responders. One approach would be to form a central data repository on a near-real-time basis which would be used in responding to queries from potential and actual responding agencies about the exact circumstances of the incident to help determine resources required for an appropriate response. This would allow law enforcement, police and fire agencies, and jurisdictions to work together and respond more effectively. There are several emerging technologies that could be applied to this problem to allow first responders to capture, analyze, and share emergency response information at any location today.  

The goal of this project is to assess and demonstrate the use of these technologies. The project focuses on the wireless communications technologies, such as CapWIN, that will allow a responding officer to leave his or her patrol vehicle and continue to capture real-time voice, video, and perhaps sensor information in the normal course of assessing an incident, managing the incident, performing investigations, and assisting people. Follow-on efforts will examine the application of other technologies that will enable the formation of central repositories, the data mining of those repositories and support for using the information to manage major incidents.  Specifically UNH will develop and pilot test a pocket PC device running various UNH developed applications in support of the CCJT un-tethered officer project and produce a report containing lessons learned.

Our UNH research and development team is constructed with a team leader who organizes and coordinates the other team members.  The remainder of the team is made up of a Lead Engineer and several UNH undergraduate and graduate students.

If you would like additional information about this project or would like to contribute to the development of the Un-tethered Office Project please contact: