GPS devices track campus crime

University Business, Feb, 2006 by Jean Marie Angela

THE CAMPUS POLICE AT DREXEL University in Philadelphia, Pa., have more high-tech help in fighting crime on campus. The security team is piloting a new GPS handheld tracking device called DragonForce, which two Drexel professors helped invent in partnership with a company called Drakontas. Campus security officers carry the devices, which allow them to electronically push photos, video clips, and text to each other, white also providing electronic location maps of their whereabouts.

"We can dispatch [security staff] more efficiently," says Ben Gollotti, senior VP of Public Safety. He adds that the next phase of the GPS program is to link the DragonForce handhelds to the laptop computers used by other members of the force. To date, Drexel has invested $70,000 in 12 DragonForce devices.