INDIANAPOLIS PALM PRINT DATABASE
The Indianapolis, Ind., Police Department has developed an integrated database of palm prints and fingerprints, perhaps the first such database in the country. Since palms make up about four of every 10 prints found at crime scenes, the $3 million system will be a useful crime fighting tool.
Source: “Palm prints lend cops a hand in crime-solving; Scanning system aids IPD in matching suspects with evidence saved in database” by Tom Spalding; The Indianapolis Star, 10 Feb. 2004: B3
NYPD TERROR PREPAREDNESS EFFORTS
The New York City Police Department, working with other city agencies and federal authorities, has developed a program to prepare the city for a possible attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. The department has conducted drills and established plans for emergency response procedures and vaccine distribution, and will participate in a BioWatch pilot program this spring that will test the city’s air for bioagents as an early warning system for a terrorist attack.
Source: “New York Police Take Broad Steps in Facing Terror” by William K. Rashbaum and Judith Miller; The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2004: A1
D.C. FIRST RESPONDERS GET COMMUNICATIONS UPGRADE
Washington, D.C., is developing the nation's first broadband data network for Police and Fire and Emergency Medical Services. The $2.7 million communications network -- to be developed over the next 18 months -- will offer high speed wireless for communications interoperability as well as live video feeds to and from ambulances and police helicopters.
Source: “D.C. police, EMS to get broadband” by Robert Davis; USA Today, 11 Feb. 2004
JAN. 31 DEADLINE FOR STATE HOMELAND SECURITY PLANS
While state homeland security plans are expected to be submitted to the Department of Homeland Security by the Jan. 31 deadline required by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the deadline for submitting raw threat assessment data has been lifted because local officials across the country have used different standards in identifying potential targets and threats. The state threat assessments will be compiled to create a national threat analysis, which will then be used to allocate homeland security grants to states.
Source: "States submit homeland security plans" by Joe Fiorill; Govexec.com, 30 Jan. 2004, online at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0104/013004gsn1.htm
IAFIS SOLVES 1965 CALIF. MURDER
The City of Orange, Calif., Police Department announced a suspect in the murder of a 75-year-old woman in 1965. Using the FBI’s Integrated Automated Identification System (IAFIS), a single fingerprint found at the crime scene matched an inmate currently serving a 50-year sentence for the 1993 murder of his mother in Austin, Texas.
Source: “Fingerprint hit opens cold case; Newly available FBI database connects 1965 murder in Orange to a convicted Texas killer” by John McDonald; The Orange County (CA) Register, 28 Jan. 2004
CODIS SOLVES 1991 RAPE OF FIVE-YEAR-OLD INDIANA GIRL
A Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) cold hit has identified a Missouri prison inmate as the man who raped a five-year-old Indianapolis, Ind., girl in her bedroom in 1991. The suspect will return to Indiana to face five felony charges, including child molestation, with a possible sentence of 116 years in prison if he is convicted.
Source: “DNA test links inmate to rape of girl in 1991; Database invented after the crime led an IPD detective to a kidnapper in Missouri” by Tom Spalding; The Indianapolis Star, 12 Feb. 2004: B5
