Thales and Gruau to develop new connected solution for patrol vehicles.

At Milipol 2017, International State Homeland Security exhibition in Paris, Thales and Gruau announce a partnership to develop a new connected solution for patrol vehicles of the future, supporting the digital transformation of law enforcement and security services.

 Drawing of roof mounted connected solution for patrol vehicles (Source picture Thales)

To meet the day-to-day requirements of law enforcement and security services in the line of duty, Thales and Gruau have teamed up to develop a connected roof unit that will replace the traditional light-bar on new generation vehicles. New functions will bring patrols remote access to professional applications and databases, the ability to share photos, videos and other documents thanks to secure, high data rate communications, and the combined benefits of local and central data processing and video analysis.

The unit is composed of a hardened slimline box installed on the roof of the patrol vehicle, inside of which all the legacy technical equipment (radio, flashing lights, siren, automatic license plate reader) will be housed alongside the equipment for the new functionalities; local application hosting, video analysis, 360° camera with night vision capabilities, proximity sensors, UAS control and a secure, high speed connectivity unit.

Housing all the technical equipment in a single roof unit will free up space inside the patrol vehicle to optimise interior layouts and ergonomics and improve safety. With its simple "slide and click" mechanism, the roof unit requires minimal vehicle conversion and optimises costs.

To support law enforcement and security agencies on an ongoing basis, the new roof unit comes with a complete range of available services, from maintenance and through-life support to full fleet capability management under performance-based service-level agreements.

For law enforcement and security agencies, the solution will make dayto-day missions easier, improve resource availability and enhance ergonomic design and safety inside vehicles. The roof unit proposed by Thales and Gruau will support the digital transformation of law enforcement and security professionals and is an ideal response to requirements in today's operational and economic context.