FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to communication systems and communication devices operating within those systems that access and retrieve public safety database records.

BACKGROUND

Communication systems, particularly those used in law enforcement, often require an officer working in the field to rely on dispatcher interaction and/or a vehicular mobile data terminal (MDT) to acquire information pertaining to public safety records. Driver's license information, vehicle plate information, and vehicle identification numbers are just a few examples of public safety records which might be important to an officer. Such public safety records may further be tied to warrant information, stolen vehicle information, missing person information, and the like. However, acquiring public safety record information in real-time at an incident scene can be challenging. One of the greatest challenges is that there may be too many requests for a single dispatcher to handle, making the waiting time to retrieve the record high. Officers are often working an incident scene away from their vehicle, leaving them without access to the vehicle's MDT, and have limited time to interact back and forth with a dispatcher using their portable radio. Additionally, not all public safety information may be relevant to the officer's immediate needs. Hence, the ability to quickly deliver relevant information in an efficient manner to an officer's portable radio is highly desirable.

