>Hey John,
>
>thanks for jumping in.
>
>I'm trying to help out an NGO who is trying to get some systems in place to assist the traffic branch of our police service here in Trinidad. I'm not quite sure of the full extent of what is being attempted, but was hoping you might be able to point me to somewhere where I can find out more about what is considered "state of the art" software in use in the US.
>
>I know they are looking at putting video cameras and computers in the patrol cars. They also want to track traffic offences, wrecked vehicles (for illegal parking), road accidents/deaths and so on.
>
>Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>

Some basic questions need to be answered. What is the budget? Are you planning on writing the software or having someone write custom software? And the list of questions goes on and on. I would think someone over there could show you some of their software. Most of the stuff I've seen is pretty expensive, with high annual maintenance fees. Many police and sheriff's departments in the US go for grant money to facilitate this. I don't know how your financial situation looks, so that is hard to discuss. I think you might save them some headaches if you hired someone with experience in law enforcement to help you put an RFP together. Then you can also get them to review the proposals when they come in. You MUST, or someone MUST make site visits where the vendors software is running. You MUST talk to the users and the administrators of those departments about the software and the support they receive.