The present invention relates to an alarm system, which is provided with a detector for detecting a force instrument, the associated detector with a holster intended for carrying a force instrument the detector detecting if the force instrument is removed from the holster, information on the situation is produced on the basis of the said identification and relayed to the user's control room.
The invention also relates to an alarm device, which is suitable to be used as part of the alarm system according to the invention.
Different kinds of instruments, by means of which it is possible to respond to different kinds of situations requiring the use of force, are part of the equipment of the police, board guards and other similar authorities. Of these instruments generally belonging to the equipment, a hand gun, a pistol, or a similar weapon can be classified as a deadly force instrument. Respectively, a pepper spray, a tear gas spray, an electric paralyzer or a similar device can be classified as a non-deadly force instrument. In connection with this invention, the common name force instrument will be used of the instruments in either of the above-mentioned groups. The operation of a single authority is generally lead, controlled and assisted by a control room, a direction centre, a command centre, an alarm centre, or similar. In connection with this invention, the term control room will be used of these.
It is common for the situations, in which these force instruments are used that they are generally needed in unexpected situations with an evident danger or threat of violence. The opposing party may suddenly attack an authority carrying out his work, or the threat of such a situation comes to a head suddenly and unexpectedly. The objective in the operation of authorities is that no single authority should face the threat or danger of violence in any situation without having sufficient back-up groups to assist and make sure a safe work performance or situation. For communicating information on this situation to and for receiving instructions from the control room, the equipment of an individual authority also includes a means of communication, which can transmit and receive information and which can be, for example, a radiophone or a similar terminal device; preferably, for example, a tetra terminal to be used in an authority network.
In practice, when a situation arises in the work of an authority that the possibility of the use of a force instrument arises or exists, the control room needs the information on this situation. One option to act is that the authority informs of the changed situation, for example, orally, by using his means of communication. However, in such a situation the authority also has many other tasks to perform so that the use of a means of communication in very fast situations is somewhat difficult even if it had functions facilitating fast use, such as speech activation or similar properties.
The patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 3,530,451 discloses an electronic alarm system, which is connected to a weapon holster worn on the body. The invention includes an instrument for identifying the removal of the weapon from the holster and for activating a radio transmitter. A remote receiving station is provided with a radio receiver so that a situation of danger will be identified on the basis of the received signal. The transmission of the signal can also be activated by a manual switch or by removing the holster from the body. Here the transmitting radio transmitter in question can be identified on the basis of the tone of the radio signal.
The patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,149 discloses a system for monitoring and recording the use of the weapon of an authority. A receiver/recorder/transmitter carried by an authority is activated by removing the weapon from its holster or by a manual switch. This activation causes the information on the removal of the weapon from the holster to be transmitted and, after this all sounds in the vicinity of the authority are transmitted and recorded. Further, it is proposed in this specification that the transmission will be received and recorded to a receiver in a patrol car. From the patrol car, the transmission can be transmitted further to a transmission station, where it will be recorded and the supervisor will get an audio and/or visual alarm, all recorded information, information on the authority in question, and date and time for later use. On the basis of this information, the supervisor can send back-up forces to the authority acting in the situation, when needed. The system can also be provided with a transmitter connected to the weapon, which makes possible the follow-up of the weapon and the defining of its location, if the weapon is separated from the authority.
For clarity, the term user will be used of the authority, such as persons employed by the police, border guards, and similar authorities or organisations, and of guards or other similar users of the invention.
The object of the invention is to further develop and improve the state-of-the-art solutions and to offer a system, which is reliable, simple, functionally safe and serving versatile use. One object of the invention is to achieve a system, by means of which very versatile information can be immediately formed on a situation of threat or danger and this information can be further transmitted to all parties concerned; for example, first and foremost to the user's control room but secondly, according to choice, to other users in the same organisation present/operating in the vicinity of the user in question. An object is also to obtain classified information on the situation in progress, on the basis of which correct conclusions can be drawn, among other things, concerning additional assistance or back-up. On the basis of the said classified information it is also possible to assess how the situation is going to progress so that it will be easier for the persons in control of the situation to take correct actions.
The alarm system of the invention is characterised in that the message will be relayed to the means of communication of the user of the force instrument, which will further transmit the message via a base station to the control room.
The alarm device of the invention is again characterised in that it has:
According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the system includes a detector-cpu, which receives the signal or message produced by the detector, and which forms a message and/or control command that the means of communications will understand. Thus, the detector-cpu works as the “brains” of the system, receiving data, processing and modifying it further and control the means of communications to perform the necessary further transmission of the data. Preferably, the detector-cpu is programmable and/or configurable in a desired way. In this case, a task-specific, user-specific or user group-specific message can be programmed as an alarm message, which can be automatically transmitted to a predetermined address, such as the control room.
One special application of the alarm system is police use. When a force instrument, such as a pistol, is removed from the holster, the situation is generally extremely threatening and there is not necessarily enough time to send a spoken message by radio to request back-up. However, the need for further assistance is often essential or, at the least, information on the situation must be sent further, in which case the purpose of the application is to automatically transmit a message of the need of further assistance to the control room, when the force instrument is removed from the holster. With the system according to the invention, the message can be transmitted to be used by the control room in an exact format, and it is possible to form exact information on the situation, including, when so desired, the information: who, what, where, when, in which situation, how the situation is developing, etc.
The invention will next be explained in more detail, referring to the enclosed drawings, in which
a-2f represent different embodiment alternatives for configuring components of the system from the detector 10 to the transmission of the message 25.
The operation of the system will next be explained by way of an example, referring to the enclosed
The detector 10 is fitted in the holster 2 of the force instrument 1 or in a connection with the holster 2 so that it will detect the existence of the force instrument 1 in the holster, if the instrument is missing or if it is moved out of or into the holster 2. The operating principle of the detector can be, for example, inductive, capacitive, resistive, mechanical or optical. For example, if the operating principle is inductive, as the force instrument 1 is in the holster, the total inductance of the detector 10 measured from the coil is bigger than without the force instrument 1. The force instrument can be read, for example, at intervals of 0.5 . . . 1 seconds so that a change in the signal of the detector will be detected immediately or almost immediately. Because the force instruments come in innumerable models and materials, steel, stainless steel, plastic components, etc, and because the measuring values obtained from these are different, detectors 10 based on inductive or capacitive identification are preferable types of detectors. Likewise, holsters for force instruments come in numerous different models so that the fitting of the detector in the holster is easier if the detector is chosen so that its physical dimensions are relatively small. When needed, for example, a sticker or some other corresponding surface can be fastened to the force instrument to facilitate the reading of the detector and for improving the reliability of the reading, the detector being able to measure or read the necessary physical value from this surface.
The detector-cpu 11 receives the signal or message 15 produced by the detector 10. Here, the signal refers to a value or change in a value of a physically measurable quantity, such as a change in voltage, inductance, capacitance, resistance, or similar, and the message 15 refers to similar, but it can be interpreted to contain information, which can be presented in an analogue or digital format. For example, the message 15 can be of the so-called “proprietor” type, which can be determined fully according to the device in question. After obtaining the signal or message 15, the detector-cpu 11 forms or builds or generates a message understood by the terminal device, i.e. the means of communication 20, such as a message concerning an auxiliary device and/or a control command for transmitting the message further. An example of such an embodiment is the means of communication 20, which is a tetra terminal, supporting the SDS message of the auxiliary device. According to an advantageous embodiment, the detector-cpu 11 controls the terminal device, i.e. means of communication 20 to transmit the message 25 further to the base station 30. The detector-cpu 11 can be, for example, a physical device containing both electronic components and a program, or it can be a purely programmatic device, in which case the detector-cpu 11 can be, for example, a program to be loaded into the means of communication 20 or to an auxiliary device of the means of communication. By means of programmability and/or configurability, it is, for example, possible to program the criteria for the activation of an alarm in a user-specific manner, a delay can be programmed to the trigger function of the alarm, or the alarm can be cancelled before it has been transmitted further by radio.
a-2f represent different options for configuring the detector 10, the detector-cpu 11, and the means of communication 20.
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The means of communication 20 of the user typically functions, for example, in an authority network in use in each country, in which case the invention will make use of the properties of this data communications network. One property of the network is to transmit the message 25 from a terminal device, i.e. the means of communication 20 to a base station 30, from which the message will be relayed further to the desired target, such as the control room 40. Examples of such data communication networks suitable for this purpose and types of messages 25 used in these are, for example, SDS messages to be relayed in Tetra networks. It is also possible to transmit a text-format message in the P25 networks, i.e. the digital P25 network in use in the USA. The same principles are also used, for example, in the Tetrapol network. In principle, the minimum contents of the message 25 is “who” and “what”, i.e. the message contains at least the identification of the user or some kind of ID information, such as the telephone number of the user's means of communication and information about the removal of the force instrument from its holster. The contents of the message 25 may partly be information 21 formed by the detector-cpu 11, such as “what”, and partly information 21 formed by the means of communication 20, such as “who”. If the user 5 has several force instruments 1 belonging to different categories, such as a hand gun and a pepper spray, the above-mentioned “what” information specifies also the category or other identification information of the force instrument. In the same way, the date-time information belongs to the basic properties of these messages to be transmitted via the above-mentioned and other similar networks so that upon logging into the log of the control room 40, also this information provides useful data, especially when analysing the situation afterwards.
In addition to the above-mentioned minimum contents, the message 25 can contain a lot of other information. One especially useful piece of information is “where”, i.e. the user's current or last known location. This information is advantageously based on the location determined by the GPS positioning device in the user's means of communication 20. GPS or a similar satellite positioning does not function reliably inside, and the removal of the force instrument 1 from its holster may as well occur inside as outside. In this case, the user is either in a blind spot or in a coverage area in relation to the GPS signal. Because of this it is preferable that a part of the system remembers the latest reliable positioning information determined with relatively accuracy, and this information will be stored to be relayed along with the message 25 or as a consequence of it. The positioning information determined by the positioning device can be arranged as a parameter, in which case it will be generated and relayed either immediately with the message 25 or, alternatively, the control room will ask the data from the user's means of communication after having received information on the situation that has arisen.
Advantageous properties of the base station 30 and the network for using the invention are, in addition to the ones mentioned above, among others the possibility of the control room to switch on a so-called “ambient listening” property in the means of communication 20 so that it is possible in the control room to listen to possible conversations or shots in the vicinity of the user, and when needed or desired, to record them.
Other advantageous additional features or properties of the alarm system or alarm device of the invention are, among others, low power consumption so that the operating time would be as long as possible, and a detector on the running out of the battery so that the user knows when to change the battery in order to keep the system operating. The use of the alarm device and alarm system is also facilitated by a switch, with which the device can be switched off for the duration of a break, or if the force instrument, such as a gun is removed from the holster for service, etc.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20050597 | Jun 2005 | FI | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/FI2006/000180 | 6/6/2006 | WO | 00 | 12/6/2007 |