Police Captain J.R. Dunlap of the Lake Jackson Police Department of Lake Jackson, Texas was more than enthusiastic about the solution he wants to see for his police department's interoperability problems.

Every since he participated in a demonstration of the ACU-1000 in May 0f 2003 he was sold. That demonstration involved an organized employees strike at two nearby chemical plant facilities that involved multiple jurisdictions' communications in the Brazoria County area of Texas.

Their interoperability problems had become more than apparent after a major railcar explosion at one of the chemical plants the year before showed their communications gaps.

The live demonstration was supported by the National Institute of Justice's National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Centers (NLECTC) located in Rome, New York which brought in the manufacturer's equipment for the test. The test was flawless, linking everyone who needed to communicate.

In a recent conversation with Captain Dunlap, I asked him how the system was working now that seven months had passed. I had assumed the department had purchased the system. The captain told me that unfortunately the grant funding had not yet arrived for the system but that fixing their interoperability problems remained the highest priority.

My next step was to contact NLECTC directly to locate ACU-1000 systems in use in various departments. Charles Stephenson who serves as the lead technical contact was extremely helpful. The CommTech program that they run is open to all of us for technical assistance and can be reached directly for your communications needs. You can communicate with them at http://www.nlectc.org/agile/justnet.html

If anyone out there has your own experiences with the ACU-1000 system let us know. Otherwise I'll report back after I contact a few users and see what they have to say.

In the meantime send a little donation to Captain Dunlap at the Lake Jackson Police Department in Lake Jackson, Texas to help support his interoperability efforts.