After successful piloting, the system is now ready for broad deployment across North America
Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) announced general availability of its incident-based preemption system for law enforcement today. While work with its first pilot customer – the Chula Vista (CA) Police Department – continues, GTT is ready to provide its new law enforcement offering to police departments across the United States and Canada, whether to cities already utilizing Opticom for fire and EMS, or cities that haven’t yet implemented preemption.
Different from legacy technologies, GTT’s incident-based preemption system takes advantage of its cloud-based Smart City Platform and connected vehicle solutions to integrate with the police department’s dispatch system, enabling activation for time-sensitive calls, while deactivating for calls that aren’t time-sensitive. If the dispatch is for a medical emergency or a crime-in-progress, the system would activate and begin requesting green lights as the police officer travels to the destination of the incident. On the other hand, if the dispatch is for something less time-sensitive, the system would deactivate and the officer would not receive priority while traveling through intersections.
Rather than activating with lights and sirens, the agency determines which types of calls get priority ahead of time. If the incident type qualifies, a request is sent to the intersection, whether directly from the police vehicle approaching the intersection, or via GTT’s cloud, depending on the city’s existing traffic infrastructure.
This new version of Opticom preemption was born out of extensive market research, which found concerns on the part of some cities’ traffic departments that law enforcement use of the system could lead to additional congestion, given the number of law enforcement vehicles patrolling and the number of calls each responds to daily.
“While many cities were unconcerned, we wanted to offer those that did have concerns the option of gating the system; this allows us to serve the needs of all involved,” said Mike Haldane, vice president of marketing for GTT. “Law enforcement gets to realize the same benefits of preemption as their fire and EMS counterparts, while traffic engineering can rest assured that the technology will only be used when it’s really needed.”
About GTT
GTT provides a clear path to smarter and safer mobility for communities worldwide. GTT’s Opticom intelligent transportation solutions help to increase safety, minimize traffic congestion, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while maximizing resource efficiency and performance. Thousands of emergency, transit and traffic agencies have trusted the innovative, comprehensive Opticom traffic solutions for more than 50 years. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, GTT is the market leader in traffic management systems, having an installed base of more than 180,000 connected devices in over 3,100 municipalities worldwide, including 41 of the 50 largest U.S. cities. To learn more, visit www.gtt.com.
For more information, please contact:
Bill Hupp
GTT Content Specialist
Back to Press Releases
