Every police department has a mission to protect its community. But today, that mission depends on technology as much as it depends on personnel.
Dispatch systems. Patrol vehicle connectivity. Records databases. Surveillance platforms. Digital evidence systems. All of it has to work flawlessly – often with small IT teams and limited budgets.
At the same time, cybercriminals increasingly view public-sector organizations as attractive targets. The data is valuable. The operational urgency means agencies can’t afford downtime. And resource constraints mean defenses are often thinner than they should be.
That’s where Lockstep Technology Group and Ocean Computer Group come in. Since our acquisition of Ocean in November 2025, we’re better positioned than ever to help agencies win that fight.
Ocean’s Roots Run Deep in New Jersey Public Safety
Ocean Computer Group has been serving local governments and law enforcement in New Jersey since 1985. That’s four decades of earning trust one department at a time, learning the specific rhythms and requirements of municipal IT, and building the kind of institutional knowledge that simply doesn’t transfer quickly.
Their work isn’t abstract. Ocean actively supports the systems officers depend on every shift: Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD), Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) in patrol vehicles, Records Management Systems (RMS), video surveillance infrastructure, and crime analysis tools. When a CAD system goes down during an active call, officers lose visibility into what’s happening in the field. Dispatch can’t see unit locations or call statuses. Response times climb. In a real emergency, that gap gets measured in ways no department wants to explain afterward. There is no acceptable downtime window. Ocean understands that, and their 24/7 managed services platform, OceanWATCH, is built around it.
That commitment extends to compliance. Ocean’s service model is built around CJIS requirements, the FBI’s data security standards for any system touching criminal justice information, and the New Jersey Cyber JIF compliance tiers. If you’re not familiar with the Cyber JIF, here’s why it matters financially: New Jersey municipalities that fail to meet minimum cybersecurity controls face a $50,000 deductible plus 20% coinsurance on losses after a breach, putting maximum out-of-pocket exposure at $110,000 per incident. Agencies that reach Advanced (Tier 3) certification see their deductible drop to zero. Ocean has helped departments navigate that path, turning cybersecurity investment from a budget line item into a real financial protection strategy.
Ocean Computer Group Transformed Our Business
“Ocean Computer transformed our entire computer infrastructure into a robust, secure network. There is no doubt that the previous vendor we were using did not have anywhere near the expertise that of Ocean Computer. They found numerous deficiencies in our computer infrastructure.
One of the biggest benefits of hiring Ocean Computer is its managed services program. The ability to contact the service department via phone or through the portal has helped us to diagnose and fix problems quickly is priceless.”
Chief Patrick Rotella
Upper Saddle River
Police Department
What Lockstep Brings to the Partnership
Lockstep’s background is in enterprise-grade security architecture, primarily across the Southeast. We’re a Palo Alto Networks NextWave Diamond Innovator, which puts us at the top tier of security architecture execution. But credentials aside, what matters is what we’ve actually done.
Lockstep has a history of supporting large government enterprises through exactly the kinds of challenges law enforcement agencies face. We’ve designed and secured networks supporting over 75,000 users at a single organization, using Aruba ClearPass network access control to verify every device before it touches the network. We’ve contained and remediated live ransomware attacks in real time. We’ve built large-scale wireless infrastructure that lets small internal IT teams manage environments they otherwise couldn’t.
The common thread across those deployments: complex environments, limited internal resources, and real consequences when something breaks. That’s not so different from running IT for a police department.
The Same Team. A Stronger Bench.
Ocean didn’t go away. It got stronger.
For agencies, the acquisition means they no longer have to choose between a local partner who understands public safety operations and a cybersecurity firm capable of addressing sophisticated threats. They now have both.
The engineers who have kept your CAD systems running, supported your MDTs in the field, and walked your department through Cyber JIF compliance are still here. Same people, same institutional knowledge, same understanding of how municipal IT actually works on the ground. What changed is what they can draw on.
Those engineers are now part of a team that includes some of the best cybersecurity and network architects in the industry. The practical effect of that shows up in situations like this: an officer’s MDT needs continuous connectivity to CAD and RMS, even when operating well outside the precinct network. The local expertise that keeps that terminal functional and integrated? Still there. Now it’s paired with enterprise-grade endpoint security and mobile device management that protects it from threats that didn’t exist a few years ago.
The same applies to identity and access risk. Law enforcement networks often share infrastructure with other municipal systems. If a credential gets stolen anywhere in that chain, a Zero Trust architecture stops a threat actor from moving laterally into sensitive law enforcement data. That’s not something most local IT teams can build on their own. It is something Lockstep engineers design routinely.
For New Jersey departments, the Cyber JIF compliance path gets easier too. The familiarity with those tiers, built through years of work with municipalities across the state, is still in the room. It’s just backed by a deeper capability set than before.
