giving city officials such as police officers and firefighters remote access to information. Intelligent transport systems rely on fiber-optic infrastructure to network and manage thousands of traffic signals in large metropolitan areas every day. Building inspectors can issue reports and access networked data while conducting inspections. Public buildings in remote areas can be connected through Wi-Fi without the expense of fiber or private telecommunications contracts. Police officers can access security cameras, blueprints, criminal records and other necessary information. Networks can allow officers to show witnesses mug shots or "virtual lineups" at the scene of a crime, instead of at a police station. The Department of Homeland Security provides funding for cities that use municipal networks for these applications. Not only does municipal broadband help public servants with their jobs, it also helps close the digital divide. Such services help bridge the gap by providing people with public access to the Internet. This allows low income families, travelers, and city officials to access important information without budgetary considerations in mind. Free or cheap Internet is crucial for information accessibility. Commentators hope that municipal broadband networks will make cities more attractive to businesses, especially high-tech and research companies, which are dependent on communication. Communication also enables small and home-based businesses to participate in international and regional commerce. Municipal broadband also allows companies to recruit remote workers. Governments have the advantage of being able to take a long term view and write off investments in municipal broadband over longer time periods, though some laws require a roadmap to profitability in municipal broadband after a limited amount of time for it to be approved. Private companies on the other hand, especially publicly traded ones, have to show profitability in a very short period. Governments are also inherently interested in serving their community, as opposed to the inherent profit motive of private companies, which can lead to better internet service and local areas of the community, as money is more likely to be invested back into internet infrastructure and be used to fund other areas of the government where necessary. Some governments create a broadband network infrastructure and allow private companies to run it and deliver services such as IPTV, Telephony and Internet access. Building open-access local broadband networks can help with the infrastructure of a town and provide benefits to the townspeople that compensate for the costs involved. Having a publicly owned infrastructure provides