CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE UNVEIL AFIS
The new Connecticut State Police $7.5 million automated fingerprint identification system based at the headquarters in Middletown will be linked to 55 Live Scan systems across the state. The system, which will also be used by Rhode Island law enforcement agencies, has already produced 78 matches on cold cases in its first two weeks of operation.
Source: "System to help match prints" by Tracy Gordon Fox; Hartford (Conn.) Courant, 6 Nov. 2004: B3
LONDONDERRY, N.H. POLICE GET IAFIS
With the recent opening of its $4.9 million headquarters, the Londonderry, N.H. Police Department now has access to an Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification (IAFIS) to help solve crimes. Police can use IAFIS to match latent prints taken from crime scenes against the FBI's database of 47 million subjects.
Source: "Londonderry Besting Burglars" by Hunter McGee; The Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.), 4 Nov. 2004: B1
ALLENTOWN, PENN. POLICE GET GRANT FOR LAPTOPS
The Allentown, Penn. Police Department plans to use a federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant of nearly $1 million to purchase about 60 laptop computers and records management equipment to improve operations. The laptops will allow officers to file incident reports and view mug shots from their vehicles, and will enable commanders to better allocate resources through crime mapping.
Source: "Police department to use grant on technology; Upgrade to help ease paperwork for Allentown officers" by Angela Pomponio; Morning Call (Allentown, Penn.), 4 Nov. 2004: B3
AMARILLO, TEXAS POLICE GET NEW COMPUTERS
The Amarillo, Texas Police Department is equipping officers with touch-screen digital assistants to improve the issuing of 50,000 traffic tickets issued each year. The department will also spend about $ 250,000 to install 44 updated mobile computer terminals into police patrol cars, enabling officers to scan driver's licenses without taking their eyes off of traffic offenders or other suspects.
Source: "Amarillo, Texas, police go high tech with digital assistants," by Phillip Yates; Amarillo (Texas) Daily News, 1 Nov. 2004
PUGET SOUND LAW ENFORCEMENT JOINS NCIS PILOT PROJECT
Puget Sound area law enforcement officials have begun using LInX (Law Enforcement Information Exchange), a pilot information sharing database developed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) that provides access to Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) files and other criminal records online. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are also interested in joining the LInX project, the first non-FBI system that gives local law enforcement agencies online access to FBI criminal investigations.
Source: "Region's police win access to FBI and other files" by Paul Shukovsky; The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 28 Oct. 2004: B2
INDIANA POLICE AGENCIES JOINING I-CLEAR
Police agencies in northwest Indiana, along with neighboring departments in Illinois, have begun sharing their criminal databases using the Illinois Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting System (I-CLEAR). One of the lessons of 9/11 is that crime crosses jurisdictional borders, and I-CLEAR will make it easier for police to make arrests through improved information sharing.
Source: "Police share data, increase safety; Goal is for criminal databases to be available to all departments in NWI" by RuthAnn Robinson; nwitimes.com (Northwest Indiana), 5 Nov. 2004
