Calgary police testing out high tech ‘ghost decaled’ vehicles

The future of Calgary police vehicles is being tested in the city and police are taking inspiration from Knight Rider for the name of the vehicle.

“The best way to introduce KITT is part of our connected officer platform,” A/Sgt. Dan Cook told Global News. “It’s a platform that’s designed to bring all of our products, our services, our software all on to a mobile platform.”

In addition to freeing up interior space for officers by replacing a laptop station with a mobile device, the exterior features lighting integrated into roof rails, windows and low on the doors.

CPS have two prototypes that officers are giving feedback on right now: one painted white and one painted black. And while the profile of the vehicle doesn’t have the telltale light bar on the roof, the sides are marked by so-called “phantom” or “ghost” decaling that matches the colour of the vehicle.

“There’s always a discussion as to whether police officers should be in unmarked vehicles or marked vehicles, and this is kind of a hybrid between the two,” Cook said. “The decaling does blend into the vehicle, but when light hits it, they do reflect, they are highly reflective and you can see them from kilometres away.”

CPS vehicles currently are all black with doors, light bars on top and yellow decaling identifying them as police vehicles. Unmarked police vehicles are designed to look like civilian vehicles.

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Mount Royal University justice studies professor Doug King said the ghost decaling follows a trend from the United States. He noted having police vehicles that aren’t obviously police vehicles isn’t without controversy.

“The rationale behind it in the United States was it would be easier for officers to do traffic safety in a more covert manner, that people wouldn’t recognize it as a police vehicle and so they wouldn’t slow down when they saw it,” King said. And so that would then allow the officers to intervene in terms of driving quickly or even more serious issues like driving while impaired.”

But he sees a potential upside in an all-white CPS vehicle, other than a nod to cruisers of the past.

“The notion of officer safety and public safety: light-colored vehicles, in particular white vehicles, are actually less likely to be involved in an accident,” King said.

“I think the bigger question is going to be, is it going to be obvious to the public on the road that the vehicle that’s approaching them is a police vehicle.”

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In the office on the road

Police vehicles serve as mobile workplaces for the officers inside, and the KITT prototypes free up some space inside.

“Just wearing this (uniform and gear) and being squished in a car, it’s really uncomfortable,” Sgt. Angie Tetley said. “It’s difficult just to sit in a cramped space for 12 hours during a night shift. Having an opportunity to have an office – which is your vehicle – that’s more comfortable, that’s going to help you do your job in a more comfortable environment is really helpful for us.”

Tetley said the prototypes can help with recruitment efforts of officers regardless of their experience level.

“It’s innovation and technology like this that’s really going to help us attract people to come and be part of our organization,” she said.

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Cook said other police agencies are trying out the high-tech, monochromatic vehicles, but he believed Calgary is Canada’s first police service to try out police vehicles in this configuration.

“We want to make sure that the officers have all the tools required to do their jobs in the most efficient way possible.”

While it’s unclear whether the KITT prototypes will be able to talk back to officers, CPS will soon be taking feedback about the proposed vehicles from the public.