Ohio City Uses Homeland Security Grant for 311 Call Center
With the help of a $107,000 federal homeland security grant, the City of Columbus, Ohio is setting up a 311 call service that simplifies calls for city services and also reduces nonemergency calls to 911. City officials expect to spend $1.6 million this year to operate the 311 system, which is similar to successful systems in Chicago, Ill. and Baltimore, Md.
Source: Mark Ferenchik, "City to open service hot line; 311 will log residents' nonemergency issues without tying up 911," The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 6 Jan. 2006: 1F
New York Ballistic Database Keeps Growing
New York’s Combined Ballistic Identification System (CoBIS) gives police another tool to use in their investigations, keeping track of handguns and the unique markings they leave on bullet casings. The database, adopted under state law in 2001, so far includes ballistic evidence from 114,763 handguns sold in New York state.
Source: Aaron Gifford, “State builds ballistic database; Police have high hopes for gun identification system,” The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.), 9 Jan. 2006: B1
Passaic County, N.J. Using DHS Grant for Communications
Passaic County, N.J. plans to spend a $1.9 million federal Homeland Security grant on a communications network that would link the county's main law enforcement offices, emergency units and colleges. The fiber-optic network is expected to be working by September.
Source: Karen Keller, “County getting it together; $1.9M grant to fund communications network,” Herald News (Passaic County, N.J.), 11 Jan. 2006: B1
Snohomish County Plans Broadband Network for Public Safety
The Snohomish County, Wash. Public Safety Technology Wireless Subcommittee, made up of law enforcement officials from around the county, has been meeting for over a year to plan the acquisition of a high-speed wireless network that would make public safety workers more efficient and effective. Besides providing Internet access, the network would allow police officers to run complex searches, retrieve booking photos and file reports from their patrol cars.
Source: Brian Alexander, “Public-safety agencies plan wireless network; Snohomish County,” The Seattle (Wash.) Times, 11 Jan. 2006: H3
Border Patrol Uses IAFIS to Capture Murder Suspect
Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents using the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) caught a California homicide suspect on Jan. 11 when they pulled over a suspicious-looking vehicle driving on Interstate 10 near Blythe, Calif. Since Oct. 1, 2005, Customs & Border Protection (CBP) agents nationwide have used IAFIS technology to help identify more than 30,000 subjects involved in crimes, including 114 homicide suspects.
Source: Blake Schmidt, “Border Patrol nab murder suspect,” The Sun (Yuma, Ariz.), 12 Jan. 2006
CODIS Cold Hit Solves California Murder
Thanks to a cold hit by the FBI Laboratory's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a Missouri man was arrested and charged with the rape and murder of a 90-year-old woman in Lafayette, Calif. Detectives from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office tracked the suspect down at the St. Louis, Mo. Justice Center, where he was being held on an unrelated drug charge.
Source: John Simerman, “Arrest made in slaying,” Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.), 7 Jan. 2006
DNA Database IDs Suspect in 2004 Connecticut Sexual Assault
Thanks to a DNA match, the man charged with kidnapping and murder in the beating death of a Woodstock, Conn. jogger in Dec. 2005 is now a suspect in a Plainfield, Conn. sexual assault that has gone unsolved since 2004. Connecticut State police were able to connect the suspect to the rape case after DNA taken from him matched the genetic material stored as a cold case in the DNA database at their Meriden laboratory.
