How Gulf Shores Police Used a Remote Surveillance Trailer to Seize 6 Firearms During Spring Break

Gulf Shores PD already deployed The RATT for festival security. When spring break surged, they added a Critical Tech Solutions (CTS) FXT-44 solar surveillance trailer to the beachfront — and the cameras started delivering results on day one.

The Agency

Gulf Shores Police Department serves one of the busiest coastal destinations on the Gulf Coast. During peak season — particularly spring break — the city’s population can swell from roughly 15,000 residents to tens of thousands of visitors in a matter of days. GSPD’s Special Operations Division is responsible for managing the public safety challenges that come with crowds of that scale in a condensed beachfront environment.

Gulf Shores PD is not new to CTS equipment. The department already operates a RATT RQ621 mobile surveillance tower that has been deployed at the Hangout Music Festival, on rooftops via tripod legs, and on patrol vehicles via hitch mount. When they needed persistent elevated surveillance for spring break, they added a CTS FXT-44 remote solar surveillance trailer to the fleet.

That decision made Gulf Shores PD one of the first agencies in the country to operate both a CTS mobile surveillance tower and a CTS solar surveillance trailer — a combination that puts elevated eyes on two separate locations simultaneously from a single department’s inventory.

The Challenge

Spring break 2026 arrived with a surge. Crowds packed the beachfront, the entertainment district filled, and the pace of incidents accelerated. Gulf Shores PD needed elevated surveillance that could be positioned quickly on the beachfront without permanent infrastructure, without external power, and without requiring IT support or a local network video recorder to access the cameras.

Coastal environments add another layer of complexity. Cellular connectivity on the Gulf Coast is notoriously inconsistent — 5G coverage is spotty along the beach, and a single carrier connection is not reliable enough for mission-critical live video. Officers on the ground can only see so far. Command staff needed a broader view — live, elevated, and accessible from anywhere — so they could track crowd movement, identify developing situations early, and coordinate resources before incidents escalated.

The Deployment

GSPD deployed the CTS FXT-44 remote solar surveillance trailer to the beachfront with a custom configuration built for the demands of extended coastal operations.

Cameras: Axis Q6325-LE with AV1 and 820-Foot IR

GSPD’s FXT-44 runs dual Axis Q6325-LE PTZ cameras — an AI-powered camera built on Axis’ latest ARTPEC-9 processor with a light-sensitive ½-inch sensor, 31× optical zoom, and infrared illumination rated to over 820 feet. Day or night, in any lighting condition, the cameras deliver clear 1080p video at up to 60 fps across the entire beachfront from a single elevated mast position.

The Q6325-LE also supports the AV1 video codec — a next-generation compression standard that dramatically reduces bandwidth consumption and storage requirements compared to H.264 or H.265. For an agency streaming live video over cellular from a beachfront trailer, that translates directly into lower data plan costs, smoother streaming on limited bandwidth, and significantly less cloud storage consumption. Combined with Axis Zipstream technology, the cameras send only the data that matters — not wasted bandwidth on static backgrounds.

Each camera ships with a 1 TB SD card for on-device edge recording — an upgrade from the standard 256 GB — plus 12 months of cloud storage with 30-day retention included at no extra cost. Officers and command staff access live video from any browser or the mobile app on iOS, Android, or Windows from anywhere in the world. No NVR. No camera server. No laptop required on-site. The default video management software is ACS Edge — free, cloud-native, and accessible from any device.

Connectivity: Starlink + T-Mobile Priority 5G Bonded via SpeedFusion

Reliable connectivity on a Gulf Coast beachfront is not something you can take for granted. GSPD’s FXT-44 solved this with a multi-layered connectivity stack that no single carrier could provide alone.

A Starlink Mini satellite terminal is deployed atop the pole camera enclosure at mast height, providing low-latency broadband internet independent of any cellular tower. Alongside it, a panel-mounted 5G high-gain antenna activated on T-Mobile Priority — a dedicated network tier that gives first responders and public safety agencies prioritized access over consumer traffic — delivers a second high-speed data path. Dual Wi-Fi antennas mounted to the bottom of the enclosure saturate the area around the trailer with Wi-Fi coverage for officers and end users on the ground.

The real advantage is in how these connections work together. A Peplink router with SpeedFusion bonding technology combines the Starlink and T-Mobile 5G connections into a single high-throughput data pipe. Instead of relying on one connection and failing over to another, SpeedFusion bonds both connections simultaneously — aggregating bandwidth for faster video streaming while providing seamless redundancy if either link degrades. On a coastline where 5G signal fluctuates with weather, crowds, and tower congestion, bonded connectivity is not a luxury — it is mission-critical infrastructure.

Power: Autonomous Solar + LiFePO4 Lithium

The trailer ran autonomously on its 640W articulating solar array and LiFePO4 lithium battery bank — no generator, no shore power, no daily maintenance visits. Victron remote energy monitoring gave operators real-time visibility into battery state, solar input, and power consumption from their smartphones. Deploy it, connect it, and it works.

Single Pane of Glass: FXT-44 + RATT RQ621 in ACS Edge

Both FXT-44 PTZ cameras and The RATT RQ621 PTZ camera accessible in a single view via ACS Edge — from any device, anywhere. No NVR required.

The RATT + Trailer Advantage

What makes Gulf Shores PD’s deployment unique is that the FXT-44 trailer is not their only CTS asset. The department also operates a RATT RQ621 mobile surveillance tower — the same field-swappable mast system that transformed their security posture at the Hangout Music Festival.

The RATT RQ621 deploys on a rooftop via tripod legs or on a patrol vehicle via hitch mount — giving GSPD a second elevated camera position at a completely different location. The FXT-44 holds a fixed position on the beachfront while the RATT moves with the operation. And as the ACS Edge screenshot above shows, both systems feed into the same cloud-based interface — officers see the FXT-44’s dual PTZ cameras and the RATT’s PTZ camera in a single pane of glass from any device.

Two CTS systems, two vantage points, one agency, one screen — that is the deployment flexibility that no single-product competitor can match.

The Results

The deployment produced actionable intelligence from day one.

According to Gulf Shores Police, information gathered from the FXT-44’s cameras contributed to multiple arrests and the confiscation of six illegal firearms during the spring break operation. In a crowded beachfront environment where conditions shift quickly, that level of situational awareness made a measurable difference in officer response and public safety outcomes.

The arrests and firearms seizures were covered by AL.com and FOX10 News, drawing regional attention to the department’s proactive approach to spring break enforcement.

Beyond enforcement actions, the FXT-44’s cameras also proved valuable for real-time incident verification — giving officers the ability to review what actually happened during reported incidents and confirm or rule out threats before committing resources. In fast-moving public safety environments, that capability saves time, reduces false deployments, and helps command staff make better decisions with better information.

Equipment Deployed

Why This Deployment Matters

Most agencies buy a surveillance trailer OR a mobile surveillance tower. Gulf Shores PD operates both — and the combination creates operational flexibility that neither system provides alone.

The FXT-44 trailer holds a fixed position for persistent, autonomous surveillance — beachfront, parking area, entertainment district, critical infrastructure perimeter. It runs on solar, requires no daily maintenance, and streams cloud-native video to any device. Meanwhile, The RATT moves with the operation — rooftop one day, patrol vehicle the next, tripod at a checkpoint the day after.

Both systems use ONVIF-compliant cameras that integrate into any VMS or RTCC platform. Both are NDAA/TAA compliant and 100% grant eligible. Both are built by Critical Tech Solutions in Knoxville, Tennessee.

For agencies evaluating a remote surveillance trailer, this deployment answers the question that matters most: does it produce results in the field? Six firearms seized and multiple arrests during a single spring break operation is the answer.

Frequently Asked Questions