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

Spring break 2026 hit the Gulf Coast hard. Tens of thousands of visitors packed the beachfront in a matter of days, and Gulf Shores Police Department needed elevated eyes on the crowd that officers on the ground could not provide. They already had The RATT from previous festival deployments. For spring break, they added a Critical Tech Solutions (CTS) FXT-44 solar surveillance trailer to the beachfront. Within the first day, the cameras were contributing to arrests and the seizure of illegal firearms.

The Agency

Gulf Shores Police Department serves one of the busiest coastal destinations on the Gulf Coast. During peak season the city’s population swells from roughly 15,000 residents to tens of thousands of visitors in a matter of days. The department’s Special Operations Division handles the public safety challenges that come with crowds of that scale packed into a condensed beachfront environment.

Gulf Shores Police Department is not new to Critical Tech Solutions. 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 an FXT-44 remote solar surveillance trailer. That made Gulf Shores Police Department one of the first agencies in the country to operate both a CTS tower and a CTS trailer at the same time.

Gulf Shores Police Department FXT-44 solar surveillance trailer deployed during spring break 2026.

The Challenge

Spring break 2026 arrived with a surge. Crowds packed the beachfront, the entertainment district filled, and the pace of incidents accelerated. Officers on the ground could only see so far. Command staff needed a broader view that was live, elevated, and accessible from anywhere so they could track crowd movement, spot developing situations early, and coordinate resources before things escalated.

The deployment had to work without permanent infrastructure, without external power, and without IT support or a local network video recorder. On top of that, the Gulf Coast is tough on connectivity. Cellular coverage along the beach is spotty, and a single carrier connection is not reliable enough for mission-critical live video. GSPD needed a system that could handle all of this out of the box.

What They Deployed

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

GSPD’s FXT-44 deployed on the beachfront with red/blue LED lights activated.

Cameras

The FXT-44 runs dual Axis Q6325-LE PTZ cameras with 31x 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 cameras support the AV1 video codec, which uses significantly less bandwidth than older compression standards. The compression stack behind this deployment, including AV1 and Axis Zipstream, is explained in detail in the CTS video compression deployment guide. On a cellular connection at a crowded beach, that translates directly into smoother streaming and lower data costs.

Each camera shipped with a 1 TB SD card for on-device edge recording 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 from anywhere. No NVR. No camera server. No laptop required on site.

Connectivity

A Starlink Mini satellite terminal at mast height provides broadband internet independent of any cell tower. Alongside it, a panel-mounted 5G antenna on T-Mobile Priority delivers a second high-speed data path with first responder prioritization over consumer traffic. A Peplink router with SpeedFusion bonds both connections into a single data pipe. Instead of relying on one connection and hoping it holds, both links run simultaneously. If either one degrades, the other keeps video flowing. On a coastline where cell signal fluctuates with weather and crowds, that kind of redundancy is not optional.

Power

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 and solar input from their phones. Deploy it, connect it, and it works.

Two Systems. One Screen.

What makes this deployment different is that the FXT-44 is not the only CTS system in the department’s inventory. GSPD also operates a RATT RQ621 mobile surveillance tower that transformed their security posture at the Hangout Music Festival.

The FXT-44 holds a fixed position on the beachfront for persistent, autonomous surveillance. The RATT moves with the operation: rooftop via tripod one day, patrol vehicle via hitch mount the next. Two elevated camera positions at two different locations from a single department’s inventory.

Both FXT-44 PTZ cameras and The RATT RQ621 PTZ camera in a single view via ACS Edge. No NVR required.

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 one view from any device. Two CTS systems, two vantage points, one agency, one screen. That is deployment flexibility that no single-product competitor can match.

The Results

The deployment produced results from day one. According to Gulf Shores Police Department, information gathered from the FXT-44’s cameras contributed to multiple arrests and the confiscation of six illegal firearms during the spring break operation.

Beyond the enforcement actions, the cameras also proved valuable for real-time incident verification. When a call came in, officers could pull up the live feed and see what was actually happening before sending a team. That capability saved time, prevented unnecessary responses, and helped command staff make better decisions with better information.

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.

The FXT-44’s elevated mast and dual PTZ cameras provided persistent coverage across the beachfront.

Why This Deployment Matters

Most agencies buy a surveillance trailer or a mobile surveillance tower. Gulf Shores Police Department operates both. That combination creates a capability that neither system delivers on its own.

The FXT-44 holds a position. It runs on solar, streams to the cloud, and does not need anyone babysitting it. The RATT moves with the mission. Rooftop one day. Patrol vehicle the next. Tripod at a checkpoint the day after that. Both systems use ONVIF-compliant cameras that plug 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 18+ arrests during a single spring break operation. That is the answer.