Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Amped Software Joins 2012 Spirit of Blue Campaign

The Spirit of Blue Foundation announced today that Amped Software (www.ampedsoftware.com) is officially joining the Spirit of Blue Campaign as a Safety Grant Sponsor. Amped Software offers its cutting edge video and image enhancement, analysis, and verification software as a powerful high tech crime fighting tool. Amped Software's innovation, through its robust features and user-friendly workflow, is designed to maximize productivity with today's overworked investigators with high caseloads. Amped Five Professional is Amped's state of the art product designed specifically for investigations that often rely on marginal surveillance video or still images that provide evidence of criminal activity.

"Video is a great tool to solve crime. Cities and businesses have made significant investments in CCTV security systems, but the difference between raw video and video that can actually be used for investigations can be as different as night and day," said E.J. Ord, Amped Software's Director of Sales for Military and Law Enforcement. "Most video is unusable without some enhancement, but the high upfront cost of proprietary video enhancement hardware and the lack of user-friendliness of most commercial software have been significant barriers that have proven to be a hindrance for agencies. We have a tremendous amount of respect for the many challenges our customers face and admiration for the drive they have to get their job done. We are excited to be involved with the Spirit of Blue's Safety Grant Program as an opportunity for us to give back, to help improve officer productivity and help agencies get the tools they need in this high tech world to get criminals off the streets."

"Amped's mission is to provide value with state of the art tools, at a price that agencies of all sizes can afford, to solve more cases and to deter further crime," commented Ryan T. Smith, Vice Chairman of the Spirit of Blue Foundation. "Even though their product performs strongest behind the scenes, it is a perfect fit for our Intelligence Gathering safety category, especially when you consider the power it brings to investigations and pursuing strong convictions."

Six non-profit organizations actively supporting the law enforcement community have already teamed up with the Spirit of Blue Foundation. Five of those organizations - The National Troopers Coalition, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, National Sheriff's Association, Chicago Police Memorial Foundation and the Jeffrey S. Parola Foundation - directly represent roughly 125,000 officers, deputies and agents nationwide. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Foundation, as the sixth partner, spans boundaries and exists as a universal concern for all 900,000 or more law enforcement officers across America.

As partners they are all join in various fundraising campaigns throughout the year, focused primarily around the National Law Enforcement Memorial Month in May and the holiday season in November-December. The Spirit of Blue Foundation shares a portion of its proceeds amongst its non-profit fundraising partners, while using its portion of the proceeds to fund Safety Equipment Grants. The safety grants are redeemable exclusively through the consortium of Safety Grant Partners made up of law enforcement equipment brands such as Amped Software.

2011 Statistics released by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, in conjunction with Concerns of Police Survivors, revealed the number of U.S. law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty totaled 173, a 13% percent increase over 2010. Firearm-related deaths reached 68, an increase of 15% for the same period. The reality of these statistics and the increasing number of underfunded law enforcement agencies across the country fueled the safety grant initiative.

The Spirit of Blue Foundation, along with Amped Software, is asking consumers to 'get in the Spirit of Blue' and provide support for the law enforcement community by participating in its campaigns throughout the year. To learn more about Spirit of Blue campaigns, or to order from the range of Spirit of Blue products currently available, visit www.spiritofblue.com.

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The Spirit of Blue Foundation, Inc., based out of Chicago, IL, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the enhancement of officer safety and vitality throughout the law enforcement community by promoting public awareness for their protection and fulfilling safety equipment and training needs. The Spirit of Blue Foundation develops and executes fundraising campaigns on a national level with the support of partner non-profits and equipment brands. The Foundation's portion of fundraising proceeds are distributed in the form of Safety Equipment Grants to law enforcement agencies from local to federal levels.