Software company IncaX created the CopTrax solution to stream live video from a police officer’s vehicle or body camera and store it in the cloud. To better pinpoint officers’ locations and reconstruct details of police activity, IncaX incorporated Bing Maps into its solution. Now, IncaX law enforcement customers use CopTrax to make more informed day-to-day decisions, reduce IT administration, and respond more quickly to critical incidents.

“As a small software company, we appreciated the time to market, the ease of development, and the compatibility of Bing Maps with our existing applications, all of which helped us save money.”

—Phil Bishop, Owner and Chief Technology Officer, IncaX

Software company uses mapping capabilities to protect law enforcement officers and citizens

IncaX www.incax.com 5 employees United Kingdom IT

Company profileFounded in 2003 in the United Kingdom, IncaX is a cloud-based software solution provider and

creator of CopTrax, an in-car video solution for law enforcement agencies.

Partner profileGrey Matter www.greymatter.com

A video solution for law enforcementThe importance of video footage as evidence in legal cases has skyrocketed in recent years. Because most citizens can now film incidents in public on their smartphones, police units are also using more dashboard and body cameras, capturing the entirety of an event to help protect police officers and citizens. Software development company IncaX was ahead of the curve in 2003 when it began working on applications to stream live video between mobile devices. By strapping a mobile device to the user’s chest, IncaX created an early version of a body camera.

In 2009, the US Office of Naval Research invited IncaX Owner and Chief Technology Officer Phil Bishop to North Carolina to test the IncaX body camera prototype and explore how the company’s technologies could be used by law enforcement agencies. IncaX further developed its solution, coding it for in-car laptops, adding GPS, syncing a wireless microphone with the video, and automating the data processing and cloud storage. The CopTrax solution was born.

IncaX engaged global reseller Applied Concepts to design and manufacture the CopTrax hardware components—hardware mounts, monitors, microphones, and other sensors for police vehicles—and take the product to market by 2010. “CopTrax did live video streaming and GPS tracking at a time when police video was essentially a camcorder suction-cupped to a windshield,” says Bill Switzer, Regional Sales Manager at Applied Concepts. CopTrax is now used by law enforcement agencies in almost every US state, in addition to several countries around the world.

Adding mapping and asset tracking completes the pictureCopTrax could gather a lot of data, but IncaX wanted to take the next step and add mapping capabilities to the solution. With a mapping component, IncaX could improve mobile asset management functionality and give the command staff at a station a live view of each police vehicle’s location and availability. The company also knew that its customers needed to be able to reconstruct events with highly secure and objective play-by-play location data.

IncaX used several criteria to evaluate potential mapping solutions. In addition to looking for high-quality, up-to-date road and aerial imagery, the company considered

“Our customers—typically police units—are relieved that their video footage goes straight from the car or the officer’s body to the cloud along with the Bing Maps information.”

—Bill Switzer, Regional Sales Manager,

Applied Concepts

how well each solution would work with its existing Microsoft .NET applications, the complexity of applying customizations, and the interoperability with its existing video software. After researching various options, IncaX decided to deploy Bing Maps. “We had a lot of considerations, and Bing Maps ticked all the boxes for us,” says Bishop. “With it, we get a completely flexible mapping solution, and we can overlay any data we want.”

Next, the company finalized the licensing details. IncaX worked with Grey Matter—a member of the Microsoft Partner Network—for advice on the best choices for its region and number of users, keeping future scalability in mind. “Knowing that we could afford the licensing represented a huge benefit as well, especially as a small company with a new product,” says Bishop.

Improves day-to-day decision making and citizen servicesNow that Bing Maps is a part of CopTrax, police units have access to more actionable data that they can use inside and outside of their stations. Commanders can see where their police cars and officers are at all times and make decisions about safety and efficiency based on that information. “It’s a game changer for the chain of command to see where officers are in real time,” says Switzer. Using Bing Maps, commanders can draw a geofence around an area of interest and it immediately becomes active for alerts. The system notifies command staff if an officer goes outside of the boundary area, helpful for patrol areas and at county, state, and national borders.

Police can also pinpoint where incidents such as DUIs, speeding, and burglaries happen the most, and send more patrols to those locations. If a citizen is concerned about drivers speeding on her street, CopTrax gives police the ability to get real analytical data about how many times the streets get patrolled. The units have more data to share with the communities they serve, including an area’s mayor and city council members.

Reduces IT burden and costsIncaX lifted its own IT burden by finding a mapping solution that was simple to deploy. “As a small software company, we appreciated the time to market, the ease of development, and the compatibility of Bing Maps with our existing applications, all of which helped us save money,” says Bishop. IncaX estimates a 50 percent faster time to market than it could have achieved with any other mapping solution, and that its subsequent development costs were 50 percent lower.

With their Bing Maps data stored in the Microsoft Azure Government cloud platform, IncaX customers have fewer IT and administrative hassles. “In the United States, about 80 percent of law enforcement is in towns that have 25 police cars or fewer, and they don’t have elaborate IT departments,” says Switzer. Without a dedicated IT staff person, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to store video, which can use a lot of space. “Our customers—typically police units—are relieved that their video footage goes straight from the car or the officer’s body to the cloud along with the Bing Maps information.”

IncaX customers are also spared the burden of separately encrypting their data. Because law enforcement videos may be used as evidence in a legal case, they must meet the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) protocol, which ensures that the videos were not altered and that everything is encrypted. “Microsoft was one of the first companies to provide a cloud service that is

“We had a lot of considerations, and Bing Maps ticked all the boxes for us. With it, we get a completely flexible mapping solution.”

—Phil Bishop, Owner and Chief Technology

Officer, IncaX

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published December 2016

CJIS compliant, and when our customers go to court, they know that their evidence will meet strict FBI standards,” says Bishop.

Protects lives with asset tracking, event reconstruction, and real-time video streamingWith video linked to Bing Maps, law enforcement agencies using CopTrax can react much faster to incidents because they know where officers are in real time and can see live events. If an officer is in a dangerous situation, the police unit watching the video feed can immediately send in backup—helping prevent any further officer or citizen distress. “The ability for the chain of command to see the location of officers in real time is huge. And commanders have aerial views and road views and images of homes and towns. They are not just seeing a map, they are seeing the community they serve,” says Switzer. “Ultimately, it’s not just about the video or the GPS coordinates or the mapping—it’s about keeping law enforcement and citizens safe.”

Bing MapsBing Maps is an established, industry-recognized mapping web service that provides data-visualization tools for location-based information and spatial services. Integrating seamlessly with and built into a number of Microsoft products, Bing Maps is also available as an API for use in third-party applications. It allows customers to display, manage, and analyze their data on a map in any business solution, website, or mobile application.

When integrated in a mobile asset management solution as the visualization layer, Bing Maps helps organizations make smarter day-to-day decisions to boost efficiency and effectiveness, reduce costs, protect high-value assets, and ensure safety compliance.

For more information about Bing Maps, go to: https://www.microsoft.com/maps/

Software and servicesBing MapsMicrosoft AzureMicrosoft .NET framework