Cold hit DNA match for 1998 Wisconsin murder
A man currently serving a five-year sentence for attempted rape was recently charged with the murder of a woman during another rape in 1998, after a cold hit DNA match by the Wisconsin Crime Lab System. The man charged with the crime has confessed to the murder of the woman, who was seven months pregnant at the time of the crime. It is the second DNA database cold hit on a murder case in Wisconsin.
Source: "State's DNA databank links inmate to '98 Milwaukee killing; Man charged with suffocating pregnant woman during assault" by David Doege; Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel, December 8, 2001, Pg. B1
First cold hit from Utah DNA database
Utah’s 7-month-old DNA database has produced its first cold hit, identifying a suspect in the September 1999 rape of a woman who was nine months pregnant. The DNA profile matches a man with a sexual assault conviction currently in prison for another crime. The Bureau of Forensic Services DNA database -- which was funded through a $150,000 federal grant -- includes DNA samples taken from 4,000 murderers and sexual assailants convicted since 1995.
Source: "Genetic Database Links Inmate With Unsolved 1999 Rape" by Jacob Santini; The Salt Lake (UT) Tribune, January 17, 2002, Pg. B2
Madison County (IL) Sheriff's Dept. gets grant for laptops
The Madison County (Illinois) Sheriff's Department has received a $175,000 COPS MORE federal grant to buy 14 laptop computers and docking stations for computers in its 46 patrol cars. Officers will be connected to the Illinois Wireless Information Network from their patrol cars, allowing them to run their own license plate and other record checks without the use of dispatchers. The computer system also features a mapping program and handheld scanners that deputies can use to post photos to law enforcement nationwide.
Source: "Sheriff's Deputies Will Get Laptops in Cars" by Trisha L. Howard; The St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, January 28, 2002
Portsmouth (RI) Police get technology grant
The Portsmouth Rhode Island Police Department has received $750,000 in federal funds, which will be used to purchase 19 squad car laptop computers, an upgraded radio communications system, a new fingerprinting system and other equipment. The department’s 32 officers expect the technology upgrade to allow them to better serve residents.
Source: "$750,000 is on the way for new police equipment" by Alisha A. Pina; The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin [East Bay edition] January 16, 2002, Pg. C4
Mississippi police intranet
13 law enforcement agencies in the Mississippi coastal counties of Harrison, Hancock and Jackson will be linked through a wireless police intranet under a $6 million Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area federal grant. The Gulf Coast HIDTA includes fifty-four law enforcement agencies spread over twelve counties or parishes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Automated System Project will allow officers in all participating departments to instantly send and receive reports, digital photographs and other information from patrol cars. Plans are to enlarge the network to coastal agencies in Alabama and Louisiana using an additional $6 million in expected 2003 funding.
Source: "Mississippi coast tries nation's first police 'intranet' ;" The Associated Press State & Local Wire, December 26, 2001
Better tracking of parolees in Kansas
A statewide system for automatically notifying parole officers by email when parolees are arrested should be online in Kansas by the end of the year. The system, part of the Kansas Criminal Justice Information System, searches new arrests against parolee identifiers such as name, date of birth, and Social Security number. More law enforcement agencies will have to join the Kansas Criminal Justice Information System for the new system to work optimally, since only about a third of the law enforcement agencies in the state currently participate.
Source: "Police Get New Way to Track Parolees" by Tim Potter; The Wichita (KS) Eagle, January 27, 2002, Pg. B1
