Baltimore (MD) Police crime mapping Web site
The Baltimore (Maryland) Police Department has unveiled a new crime statistics Web site for residents. Crime Maps, which cost $70,000 to develop, is searchable by address, neighborhood, school or police post. Crimes covered on the maps include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, auto theft, burglary and larceny from vehicles. Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley was inspired to create the site after viewing the Chicago Police Department's Citizen ICAM crime mapping page.
Source: "New Web site maps crimes in Baltimore" by Del Quentin Wilber; The Baltimore (MD) Sun, February 6, 2002, Pg. 3B
Squad car computers for Topeka (KS) police
The Topeka (Kansas) Police Department is outfitting its patrol cars with new computers, using about $1.2 million in federal grant money. The computers, which have so far been installed in 35 of the department's 100 patrol cars, will enable officers to run license plate checks without relying on dispatchers. Once new dispatch center software is installed this summer, officers will be able to communicate by silent dispatch and prepare reports in their vehicles.
Source: "Take a byte out of crime" by Chris Moon; The Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal, February 6, 2002
Victim spots assailant on sex offender Web site
A teenage rape victim identified her assailant on the Grand Prairie (Texas) Police Department Web site sex offenders list, and a subsequent DNA test by police on the suspect led to his being charged with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony. He was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in Dallas County, Texas in 1983, and was out on parole when the attack on the 14-year-old victim occurred in 1998.
Source: "DNA test links man to attack; Teen rape victim found his photo in an online sex-offender database" by Jason Trahan; The Dallas (TX) Morning News, February 13, 2002, Pg. 5Y
Dewitt County (IL) Sheriff's Dept. uses AFIS to nab murder fugitive
The DeWitt County (Illinois) Sheriff's Department fingerprint identification system – purchased last year using a federal grant— was used to identify a man wanted in the 1980 stabbing murder of a woman in Adams County, Colorado. The man was arrested for driving with a revoked license, which turned out to have been issued under an alias that he had used in Illinois for over a decade. The AFIS check run on his prints at the time of booking turned up the fugitive warrant under his real name.
Source: "High-tech fingerprint system helps authorities collar murder suspect;" The Associated Press State & Local Wire, February 5, 2002
Cold DNA hit for 1986 Virginia murder
The Big Stone Gap (Virginia) Police Department recently received word of a DNA cold hit for the 1986 slaying of an 85-year-old local man. Virginia’s Division of Forensic Science DNA databank matched crime scene evidence to the DNA profile of a 33-year-old felon who knew the victim but had not previously been a suspect in the crime. Virginia's DNA database has been very successful at identifying suspects, including the first interstate "cold hit" in 1998.
Source: "Cold Hit Made in 1986 Slaying; 33-Year-Old Felon's DNA said to Match" by Kathy Still; The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, February 8, 2002, Pg. B2
Essex County (MA) digital mug shot system
The Essex County (Massachusetts) Sheriff's Office has a digital mug shot system that can be accessed by modem from police departments throughout the county to create lineups and search for suspects. The database of 60,000 mug shots cost $318,000 to develop, using funds from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Greater Boston Police Council. Police departments have been issued digital cameras and scanners to continue adding booking photographs to the database, and can also use the system for secure inter-departmental communications.
Source: "Police Go Digital With Mug Shots" by Caroline Louise Cole; The Boston (MA) Globe, February 17, 2002, North Weekly edition, Pg. 14
