The Mountain View Police Department is turning to technology to help track its officers in the field.
The department is relying on GPS technology on officers' cell phones to give commanders a real-time look at where units are in the city. The program is called Altus Blue Force.
"One of the use cases would be if an officer got in a pursuit and then got in a foot pursuit," Lt. Chris Hsiung said. "This technology would theoretically let us track where that officer was going."
Mountain View-based Polaris Wireless, who created Altus Blue Force, is convinced the new strategy will make the police force more effective.
"Once we layer on other pieces of information such as crime data and so on I think the tool has a lot of analytical capabilities," said Bhavin Shah of Polaris Wireless. "And that will eventually make it a very effective crime-fighting tool."
Mountain View police launched Altus Blue Force last month during a concert, which helped track the movement of more than 20 officers.
"Anytime you have a visual representation of where your resources are deployed, it's much easier to see where they are at and to redeploy them if needed," Hsiung said. "Currently, we basically go off experience when officers say they are at different intersections."
