Granite City (IL) Police use DNA database to solve murder
The Granite City (Illinois) Police Department has arrested a 47-year-old registered sexual offender for the July 7th murder of a 28-year-old woman. A DNA sample found at the scene of a murder was recently matched to the man, who used to live next door to the victim. His previous convictions for sexual assault placed him in the state DNA database, making the cold hit possible.
Source: DNA Leads to Murder Charge in Death of Granite City Woman by Heather Ratcliffe; St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, September 5, 2001, Pg. B1
Cooper City (FL) Police purchase laptops
The Cooper City (Florida) Police Department has purchased a $680,000 squad car laptop computer system that will improve record keeping and speed up response time for records checks by officers in the field. Officers will be able to run checks in 30 seconds, instead of the 3 to 5 minutes it took when using dispatchers to run the checks. Officers will also be able to use the computers to prepare traffic tickets and accident reports. The city is using $464,000 from its law enforcement forfeiture fund and a $216,000 federal grant to pay for the new system.
Source: Laptops to Speed Up Police Work; Cooper City Officers Will Be Able to Do Checks Online by Thomas Monnay; Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) September 2, 2001
DNA database hit in Oklahoma
A prison inmate currently serving a 45-year sentence for rape and an unrelated robbery has now been linked by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation DNA database to a 1985 sexual assault for which an innocent man served 15 years in prison. Because the statute of limitations on rape is seven years it may not be possible to charge the inmate with the 1985 rape. The 1992 rape for which he was convicted occurred at the same apartment complex as the 1985 case.
Source: DNA points to inmate in rape case from 1985 by Ed Godfrey and Diana Baldwin; The Daily Oklahoman, August 30, 2001
Pierce County (WA) Sheriff's Dept. gets grant for laptops
The Pierce County (Washington) Sheriff's Department received a $324,102 U.S. Department of Justice Local Law Enforcement Block Grant, $230,000 of which will go toward laptop computers for patrol cars. The computers will enable officers to run their own license plate checks and prepare reports from their vehicles.
Source: Pierce County: Grant will be used to prosecute criminals, add laptops to cars by Paula Lavigne Sullivan; The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) September 6, 2001, Pg. B2
Ames (IA) Police get grant for laptops
The Ames (Iowa) Police Department has purchased laptop computers for its eight squad cars. Officers will be able to use the computers, which also include printers, to run license plate checks, write tickets, and prepare reports. The $7,500 computers will be purchased using a federal grant.
Source: Ames police use computers in cars; The Associated Press State & Local Wire, August 29, 2001
Rock Springs (WY) Police upgrade records management
The Rock Springs (Wyoming) Police department has purchased a $46,000 machine that transfers 90 pages of paper documents at a time to microfilm and compact discs. The departmentís previous equipment only allowed one page to be copied at a time, a slow process for 75 years worth of records. The Police Chief, Neil Kourbelas, hopes that officers will eventually be able to access the electronic records from their vehicles.
Source: Rock Springs police step up archiving effort; The Associated Press State & Local Wire, August 24, 2001
