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Durable, Reliable: Police Say That's the Ticket!

DECATUR, IL - A nationwide survey of law enforcement officers and agencies highlights agencies' need for reliable tools of the trade, especially in cars and on the streets for speed enforcement, video and traffic safety.

The top four "needs" in any product were:

1. Reliability
2. Initial quality
3. Durability
4. Ease of operation

When it comes to speed measurement and traffic enforcement, agencies added one specification demand-maintainability:

1. Durability
2. Reliability
3. Initial quality
4. Serviceability

For in-car video systems, police and sheriffs' agencies demand:

1. Durability
2. Reliability
3. Serviceability
4. Low price

The survey, conducted in 2006 by C.C. Wargel Consulting for the nation's oldest manufacturer and designer of law enforcement radar polled a wide variety of the law enforcement community, eliciting responses from over 800 officers. It had a margin for error of plus/minus 5 percent. Greg Roberts, national sales manager for Decatur Electronics, said the survey was conducted to qualify and quantify customer's specific needs.

"Officers are hard on equipment," said Roberts. "Their first priority is keeping their communities safe, not maintaining electronics. That's why durability and reliability rank so high across the board. They also need something that works well straight out of the box." Decatur's products are on the mark for meeting and exceeding the needs of officers, according to Jim Sanner, CEO of the 52-year-old company. As examples, he noted:

Reliability and durability:

• Decatur products are still in use many years after their initial product, including Genesis 1 radar units that are over 16 years old.
• The Gemini Plus Digital offers a new rugged DVR hard-drive and digital video component system.

Initial Quality:

• Decatur ranks in the top three of manufacturers when agencies look to purchase radar, in-car video or a speed trailer.
• Decatur offers full warranty, service and guarantees on each of its products.

Serviceability

• Decatur set the benchmark for repairs with guaranteed 2-day turnaround on radar repairs and consistently leads in turnaround for all its products.
• Decatur products are manufactured with the user in mind to allow easy installation and modularity for returning components should they need repair or service.

Low Price

• Decatur offers some of the lowest-priced, highest quality products in the industry, including in-car and handheld radar, speed trailers and high-resolution digital video units.

"We're not stopping with these high marks," Sanner noted. "Our advanced, customizable SI-3 radar and affordable Genesis Handheld Directional radar are just hints at the innovation we're capable of. We're planning on continuing to revolutionize the way law enforcement thinks about radar in 2007."

Decatur Electronics, headquartered in Decatur, IL, created the first radar specifically designed to meet the needs of police officers in the 1950s. The company also manufactures radar for sports, industrial applications and OEM products for companies including Harley-Davidson™, Polaris™, and Jugs™ and manufactures OnSite™ radar and message trailers and Gemini™ Digital in-car video. In addition, the company operates an engineering technology facility in Ft. Collins, CO, and a high-tech vehicle outfitting division, ThunderWorks Mobile Engineering, in Santee, CA.

For more information about Decatur and its products, visit the website www.decaturradar.com.

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