Merseyside Police Cracks Down On Drug Crime with Citrix

The portable police station - in effect, a complete mini-police station, with an interview room, and two armoured glass detention rooms - has been designed to meet community policing needs and can be rapidly deployed into hotspot areas. The unit is equipped with four laptops that provide real-time access to the Force's Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS) via Citrix MetaFrame XPe and O2's GPRS service. This allows officers to carry out background checks and process arrests in the problem area - drastically reducing travel and adminstrative time, and keeping officers on the beat.

 "Crime will always reduce in areas of high police activity, and this new police station will enable us to work directly in the heart of the communities we police," said Sergeant Gary Fairbrother.  "Using mobile technology to give officers access to our central database supports this goal, and will help us to tackle drugs related crime in Merseyside."

"From a technical point of view, providing this access looked difficult to achieve," said Christopher Pyne, IT manager at Merseyside Police. "ICJS is a mainframe system with a Windows front end that is difficult to deploy over wireless networks.  But using Citrix MetaFrame XP over O2's GPRS service, we have been able to roll out this system very quickly and effectively - with the added benefit that the data in our system is totally secure."

Pyne worked closely with Citrix Platinum reseller Point to Point to implement the solution.  The service sees the ICJS application deployed over Citrix MetaFrame XPe to laptops equipped with O2 GPRS phonecards.

"Merseyside's portable police station is a highly innovative example of how technology can help public sector organisations meet their service goals," said Keith Turnbull, vice president and general manager of Citrix's Mobility business unit. "The combination of O2's GPRS network and Citrix application serving software will provide the Force with rapid, secure access to vital information that enables them to support its local community."

About Citrix 
Citrix Systems, Inc. is a global leader in virtual workplace software and services that provide access to applications, information, processes and people on any device, over any network, anywhere, anytime.  Citrix makes today's digital office completely virtual - instead of having to go to your office, the office follows you.  Working with the world's top industry, integration and consulting partners, Citrix delivers enterprise-ready solutions to business challenges including application deployment, remote office connectivity, workforce mobility and business continuity.  More than 120,000 companies worldwide use Citrix Solutions for the Virtual Workplace to give users more mobility, give IT organisations more flexibility and reduce the cost of computing. 
 
Citrix offers two families of products that enable virtual access to information: Application Server software, including MetaFrame XP, MetaFrame for Windows and MetaFrame for UNIX; and Access Portal software, including NFuse Elite and NFuse Classic.  The company markets its products through a well-established indirect channel comprising approximately 6,000 resellers, integrators and consultants.  In fiscal 2001, the company had net revenues of $591.6 million.  Citrix is traded on the Nasdaq Stock MarketSM under the symbol CTXS, and is part of the Standard and Poor's 500 Index.  Citrix is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  For more information, please visit the Citrix Web site at http://www.citrix.com.

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