LAW ENFORCEMENT
Brown County (SD) Sheriff's Use of AFIS
Four years ago, the Brown County (South Dakota) Sheriff's Department became the first county in the state to purchase an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). Since then, nine other counties - Minnehaha, Pennington, Davison, Lawrence, Hughes, Yankton, Codington, Meade and Brookings - have purchased AFIS computers that are linked to the state Department of Criminal Investigation in Pierre for efficient sharing of fingerprint information online.
Source: "Fingerprinting made easier; Brown County uses system that's convenient, improves accuracy" by Scott Waltman. Aberdeen (SD) American News, 27 September 2003: A1
San Mateo (CA) Police Use of Wi-Fi
Since June, the City of San Mateo (California) Police Department has been testing the use of a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) network by officers in their patrol cars using wireless laptop computers. The Wi-Fi network, for which the department paid about $25,000 in technology grant funds to set up, allows officers to view DMV photos and other records information.
Source: "Wi-Fi lets computers, cops roam free; Wireless laptops let officers bring their offices on the road" by Amy Yarbrough. San Mateo (CA) County Times, 18 September 2003
New Ada County (ID) Sheriff's Web Site Very Popular
After over two years of development, design and testing, the Ada County sheriff's Web site has added three new databases: Ada County sex offenders, 5-day arrest report and outstanding warrants. The new content has increased visits to the site, from about 314 hits a day to almost 5,000 hits a day. The length of each visit has also increased from 2 minutes, 35 seconds before the new content to about 8 minutes.
Source: "Ada beefs up sheriff's Web site; New listings include warrants, sex offenders" by Patrick Orr. The Idaho Statesman, 17 September 2003: 1 and "Traffic up at new sex offender Web site; Nearly 5,000 hits a day since the page debuted" by Patrick Orr. The Idaho Statesman, 20 September 2003: 1
Macomb (MI) Computer Enforcement Team
Macomb County, Michigan police agencies are uniting to fight computer-related crime. The Macomb Area Computer Enforcement (MACE) team includes officers/deputies from the Macomb County Sheriff's, the Chesterfield Township Police Department, and the FBI. In the past year the unit has handled 117 fraud cases, 57 forensic examinations, 41 child-predator cases, and dozens of other cases.
Source: "Police methods turning high-tech; Advances boost crime-solving task" by Edward L. Cardenas and Tim Keenan. The Detroit (MI) News, 19 September 2003: 5D
North Dakota Statewide Emergency Drill
North Dakota’s first statewide, multi-agency anti-bioterror drill took place on September 24 in the city and county of Grand Forks, one of 38 counties included in this training. In the drill, a public building came under chemical "attack" in order to gauge the coordination efficiency of first responders, combining the state highway patrol and emergency medical teams with the city’s sheriffs office, police, fire and public health departments. The exercise was lead by the Grand Forks City and County Emergency Operations Center and sponsored by the North Dakota Division of Emergency Management.
Source: "Disaster Preparedness: GF teams rehearse bioterrorism threat; exercise part of statewide homeland security threat" by Stephen J. Lee. Grand Forks (ND) Herald, 25 September 2003
Niagara Falls (NY) Police Get Live Scan
The Niagara Falls (New York) Police Department has been given Live Scan fingerprint equipment by the Niagara County Sheriff's Department. Live Scan allows faster and more efficient booking than the old ink pad method, and makes it possible to catch criminals using aliases. Fingerprints submitted electronically to the state are forwarded to the FBI, which replies with any outstanding warrants within 90 minutes.
Source: "For Falls Police, Fingerprinting is Now a Snap" by Paul Westmoore. Buffalo (NY) News, 21 September 2003: NC5