Police car computer in "Whatever Works"

[Guest myonlyvice]

In the ZZ Top scene that ends with the cops blowing those guys away with a shotgun, one of the cops, before pulling the suspects over, says he's gonna run something through the computer. Apparently he was talking about an on-board police car computer. I'm wondering what kind of computers like this were in use in '85 and how capable were they? Any techies here that know/remember?

[C Glide]

In the ZZ Top scene that ends with the cops blowing those guys away with a shotgun' date=' one of the cops, before pulling the suspects over, says he's gonna run something through the computer. Apparently he was talking about an on-board police car computer. I'm wondering what kind of computers like this were in use in '85 and how capable were they? Any techies here that know/remember?[/quote']I believe what was meant was that he was calling in to the station to have the dispatch run a query on the computer at dispatch.

[Guest myonlyvice]

I believe what was meant was that he was calling in to the station to have the dispatch run a query on the computer at dispatch.

Yeah, it occurred to me that he might have been calling it in to dispatch but it appeared that he was reaching down to fiddle with something I thought might have been a computer. But maybe he was just reaching down for a radio. Thanks anyway for the reply.

[Stinger390X]

The police in some larger municipalities were using early model MDT's (Mobile Data Terminals) Some models were simple 486 puters and then they moved to the Panasonic "Toughbook" There were many companies that made MDT's and some were pretty huge in the old days as they took up half the front seat area (no partner riding shotgun in those traffic cars)You mention 1985 and this does pose a question as these MD's were not out until around the 486/pentium I era.The other post suggests that maybe he just called in on the radio. I can remember in the early 80's a friend of mine worked at a police station as a data entry guy and he was posting all the paper stuff onto computers in 1982-83. These were very crude machines from IBM and had HUGE 8" floppy discs and green monochrome screens. The puters were as big as a small refrigerator! Now that would be fun to see nowadays.................

[Guest myonlyvice]

The police in some larger municipalities were using early model MDT's (Mobile Data Terminals) Some models were simple 486 puters and then they moved to the Panasonic "Toughbook" There were many companies that made MDT's and some were pretty huge in the old days as they took up half the front seat area (no partner riding shotgun in those traffic cars)You mention 1985 and this does pose a question as these MD's were not out until around the 486/pentium I era.The other post suggests that maybe he just called in on the radio. I can remember in the early 80's a friend of mine worked at a police station as a data entry guy and he was posting all the paper stuff onto computers in 1982-83. These were very crude machines from IBM and had HUGE 8" floppy discs and green monochrome screens. The puters were as big as a small refrigerator! Now that would be fun to see nowadays.................

Cool info! Thanks, bro.