New system will let emergency first-responders transmit and receive text, images, and video. In the next 90 days, the city of Fresno, Calif., will begin deploying a new data-communications system to link police, fire, ambulance, and other emergency first-responders via the Web. Like most police departments, Fresno already has a data-communications system in place. But the current 800-MHz system from Dataradio Inc. lacks encryption capability and is too slow to handle new data types like video, says Pat Rhames, a captain at the Fresno Police Department. “We’re interested in adding a system that has more throughput capacity that will take care of what we currently cannot do,” he says. Full Story