Keene, N.H., police officers going to Dunkin’ Donuts ran into a problem: The store’s computers went haywire anytime they pulled in.
The wireless network used by the police computers interferes with the computers inside Dunkin’ Donuts whenever they come in range.
Police going to Dunkin’ Donuts now have to disconnect their computers from the network before going to Dunkin’ Donuts.
According to city officials, the wireless network is about as slow as dial-up, and is also spotty in places. “The spottiness is the root of the problem,” Rebecca Landry, Keene’s director of information management, told the Associated Press.
Police need to be able to use their computers to check for warrants and stolen vehicles wherever they are, even conceivably from Dunkin’ Donuts.
The police department has plans for an upgraded wireless network that would be faster, could be used by other departments as well, and wouldn’t interfere with Dunkin’ Donuts. If the city council approves, the system could be installed as early as next fall.
Then the police could quit using the drive-thru and actually go in to Dunkin’ Donuts again.
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Newsvine
Jan 21, 2006
Grain of Salt
Mark J
Jan 21, 2006
How powerful must that radio system be to interfere with computers? I mean, unless Dunkin’ Donuts is using a wireless network (which would be stupid of them).
Michael Hampton
Jan 23, 2006
The specific technical information (such as frequencies) needed to evaluate this problem isn’t generally released to the public. Or at least they TRY not to, especially with respect to law enforcement. And I wasn’t able to obtain specific information for that city by the time of the post. What I can say is that you should read that FCC statement on the bottom of your computer.
Anonymous
Dec 31, 2009
They use Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband PCMCIA cards.
Michael Hampton
Dec 31, 2009
Verizon Wireless data cards do seem to be a popular choice among law enforcement agencies.
And they certainly didn’t use them at the time this story was published.