Hands free emergency system on display in NH

Durham, NEW HAMPSHIRE (NEWS CENTER) - 11-years ago researchers at the University of New Hampshire came up with an idea to make police officers' jobs safer by giving them hands free access to the equipment inside their cruisers.

Since then "Project 54" has become a big success. It's now in use in more than 1-thousand emergency response vehicles throughout New Hampshire as well as being installed in every new state police cruiser there.

Wednesday project leaders showed off how far they've come. With a simple touch of a button on the steering wheel and a voice command, an emergency responder can have immediate access to any of the vehicles equipment and have information read back to them.

"It offers us the opportunity to have advanced safety inside the cruiser. Officers can keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel while activating certain equipment", said NH State Police Lt. Mark Liebl.

Besides police cruisers the Project 54 program is now installed in fire trucks, motorcycles, even marine patrol boats.