How to Run Crimestar RMS in a Mobile Environment

There are several different ways to run Crimestar RMS in a mobile environment. The method you choose depends on your operational requirements and budget. Here we will briefly discuss different methods for achieving this goal.

Disconnected Method: The most basic and least expensive method for running Crimestar RMS in a mobile environment is to run Crimestar as a standalone system on a laptop computer and periodically use our database synchronization utility to merge your data from the laptop into your office system. This method requires that your laptop have a network connection to your office system. While most agencies simply bring the laptop into the office to connect it to the network and perform the synchronization, other agencies choose to permanently mount the laptop in the car. In those circumstances they park the car near the station and either extend a network cable to the car or use a wireless network connection (similar to 802.11) which has an operational distance of about 100-150 feet. These types of short distance wireless connections are very affordable and utilize either 40bit or 128bit encryption schemes to ensure network security.

Connected LAN: To run Crimestar RMS in the field while maintaining a "LIVE" connection to the host database in the office. You can implement a radio based LAN connection. In this type of environment you are simply extending your network to the field using radio based network connections. These types of connections can either be a totally private network or a private segment or connection to a commercial network such as a CDPD type system. Unfortunately in certain geographical areas commercial systems may not be available. Implementing your own private data radio network can be very costly and involve high levels of maintenance and should not be undertaken unless you have a strong understanding of what it will take to implement such a network. Technically speaking either the Crimestar RMS professional version or enterprise version can work in this environment. That being said, the professional version of the program is implemented as a true LAN application that requires a mapped drive or directory reference and often moves large volumes of data across the network. Since data "Bandwidth" on radio based networks is very limited the professional version will likely perform poorly (slow). The enterprise version of Crimestar RMS is implemented as a true client server application that only requires the IP address of the database server to establish a connection. Likewise the enterprise version of the software typically moves much less data across the network and therefore is much better suited and optimized for slower wide area network connections such as those that utilize data over radio. In this scenario you need to have enough Crimestar Licenses to allow for the additional concurrent users that are running the Crimestar RMS software and accessing the Crimestar RMS database.

Terminal Server: The Terminal Server approach involves running multiple instances of Crimestar RMS (either version) on a server at the station and merely utilizing 3rd party remote access technology such as Microsoft Terminal Server to send the video images and keyboard commands over the radio network (public or private) to the laptop in the field. In effect the software is actually running at the station, but the screen output and keyboard commands are sent to the remote computer. This method can perform very well in a wide are or radio based network since very little data is actually sent over the network to the laptop in the car. Obviously this approach requires you to purchase the 3rd part software similar to Microsoft Terminal Server and other supporting products and software that may be required. Likewise, you need to have enough Crimestar Licenses to allow for the additional concurrent users that are running the Crimestar RMS software.