Roanoke Co. (VA) Police get squad car laptops
The Roanoke County (Virginia) Police Department has bought 40 squad car laptop computers, using a $370,500 federal COPS grant. Officers use the computers to run their own license plate checks and communicate with each other over silent dispatch, which the department estimates will reduce radio traffic by 40%. The computers also offer online maps that allow officers to quickly find the best route to emergency calls.
Source: "Laptops Become Personal Dispatchers for Roanoke County Police" by Hattie Brown; The Roanoke (VA) Times & World News, August 2, 2002, Pg. B1
Cold hits from Kansas DNA database
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) recently had three cold hits on unsolved rape cases, including its first two matches from the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). The hits were made on DNA samples from three Kansas prison inmates entered into the KBI database under state law. Details on the unrelated cases are being kept private until charges are filed, but the victims include a woman in Ohio, a woman in eastern Kansas and a child in Kansas City, Mo.
Source: "DNA matches men to unsolved cases" by Tim Hrenchir; Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal, August 3, 2002
Cold hit from New Mexico DNA database
A cold hit from the DNA database run by the Technical & Emergency Support Division of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety has identified a suspect in a rape case who was released from jail only two weeks before the assault occurred. The New Mexico database has about 17,500 samples, and has helped solve a dozen cases across the state and six cases from other states.
Source: "DNA Ties Convict To Rape Scene" by Jeff Jones; Albuquerque (NM) Journal, July 30, 2002, Pg. A1
Cold hit from Tennessee DNA database
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation recently announced the 41st hit from the the state’s DNA database: a man recently convicted of burglary was linked to a series of rapes on the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee in 1997. The database has been used to solve six murders since Feb. 19, when the database went online and became linked to the FBI’s CODIS database.
Source: "DNA links Burglar to UT rapes" by John Shiffman; The Tennessean (Nashville, TN) July 28, 2002, Pg. A1
Conn. State Police see more computer crime
The Computer Crimes and Electronic Evidence Unit of the Connecticut State Police has seen its case load increase fivefold since 1999, from 103 cases to about 580 in 2001. Investigations have covered child pornography, larceny, fraud, online threats, enticement of a minor and hacking. About 300 cases have been reported so far this year. The department has issued special warnings to children and parents after the May 2002 murder of a 13-year-old Danbury, Conn. cheerleader by a 25-year-old man she met on the Internet.
Source: "Computer crime caseload increasing;" The Associated Press State & Local Wire, July 9, 2002
Penn. State Police get $123M systems upgrade
Pennsylvania State Police have begun a $123 million systems upgrade that will connect troopers in patrol cars to more than 30 state and federal databases, and will improve records management through barcoding and other technology. Under the project the department's 81 dispatching centers will be consolidated into five. The new system should be online in about four years.
Source: "Troopers to Access Databases in Cruisers" by John M.R. Bull; Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette, July 28, 2002, Pg. C7
