SOUTH BEND, IND., POLICE GET AFIS
The South Bend, Ind., Police Department recently purchased a $384,000 Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), improving their ability to catch suspects, connect crimes and crack unsolved cases. Since May 24, the system has received five hits on unsolved cases and also uncovered three people who had given false identification during their arrest.
Source: “Fingerprinting system may help crack police mysteries; Technology will assist lab, investigators in connecting crimes, tracking suspects” by Patrick M. O'Connell; South Bend (IN) Tribune, 9 June 2004: D1
DNA COLD HIT ON 1968 NEW JERSEY MURDER
A DNA cold hit, and the investigative work of the Middletown, N.J. Police Department has led to the arrest of a 53-year-old sex offender on charges he raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl in that township in 1968. The suspect has been detained in a state maximum security prison as a habitual sex offender in an unrelated case, and was imprisoned from July 1995 to May 1998 for the rape of a 15-year-old girl in Ocean County, N.J..
Source: “DNA Leads to Arrest in '68 Rape and Murder of Girl, 13” by Robert Hanley; The New York Times, 17 June 2004: B1
TEXAS CITY'S USE OF HANDHELD TICKET COMPUTERS
Police in Dalworthington Gardens, Tex., are using three handheld electronic ticket writers, purchased for $4,700 each, paid for with a court technology fee added on to citations. The computers speed up the citation process and reduce clerical errors from poor handwriting. Since the tickets are downloaded into the municipal court database at the end of each shift, the need for municipal clerks to process 800 to 900 violations per month by hand has been eliminated.
Source: “Police go high-tech with new computers” by Susan Schrock; Fort Worth Star Telegram, 15 June 2004:1B
NYC PLANS AMBITIOUS WIRELESS NETWORK
The New York City Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications plans to build a public safety wireless network of unprecedented scale and scope over the next few years. The network will support tens of thousands of mobile users throughout the city, allowing data transfer to vehicles going at speeds of up to 70 mph citywide.
Source: “NYC wireless network will be unprecedented; Public safety workers would get mobile data access citywide at costs estimated at $500M to $1B” by Bob Brewin; Computerworld, 18 June 2004
NORTH DAKOTA CJIS PROJECT
Since 2000, North Dakota law enforcement and criminal justice agencies have been developing a statewide Criminal Justice Information Sharing (CJIS) computer system that will be accessible by officers from participating agencies from their patrol cars by 2008. The “central hub” of the system should be online by this fall, allowing agencies to start entering criminal records. The $8 million price tag will be covered by federal grants.
Source: “Officials prepare info-sharing tool in fighting crime” by Mike Albrecht; Bismarck (ND) Tribune, 18 June 2004: 1A
RAND-NIOSH REPORT ON FIRST RESPONDERS
Better planning, training, coordination and management procedures are needed to protect emergency responders at the scene of terrorist attacks and disasters, according to a new study from the RAND Corporation and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The report, “Protecting Emergency Responders: Vol. 3 Safety Management in Disaster and Terrorism Response,” may be read online.
Source: “RAND-NIOSH Study Says New Approach Needed to Protect Emergency Responders in Terrorist Attacks and Disasters,” RAND press release, 16 June 2004
