WEEKLY NEWS: Covering
Law Enforcement, Corrections & Courts across the United States
| Vol. 2 #40 January 18, 1999 |
#1 Reforming the Arrest Warrant Management System in Massachusetts
#2 Ohio police departments get grants for squad car laptops
#3 Clackamas County (OR) Sheriff gets COPS MORE grant for computers
#4 Streamwood (IL) police receive grant for squad car laptops
#5 Mississippi law enforcement to get automated fingerprinting
#6 Virginia's sex offender web site is deluged with visitors
#7 A look at court automation across the country
#8 High-tech Lincoln County (NC) Law Enforcement and Detention Center
LAW ENFORCEMENT TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Among the recommendations in the Massachusetts Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee report Warranting Improvement: Reforming the Arrest Warrant Management System is the goal of putting a laptop computer in every Massachusetts police car by January 1, 2002. The committee hopes to reduce the state's backlog of 275,000 outstanding warrants through a combination of technology upgrades and increased enforcement of the warrants by state tax and motor vehicle registry officials.
[Source: "Warrant Overhaul Found Lacking Backlog Growing, Senate Panel Says" by Brian MacQuarrie; Boston Globe, January 6, 1999, Pg. B1]
Item #2 OHIO POLICE DEPARTMENTS GET GRANTS FOR SQUAD CAR LAPTOPS
A group of Ohio law enforcement agencies--which includes police departments from Wooster, Orrville, Rittman, Creston, Dalton, Doylestown, Marshallville, Mount Eaton, Shreve and the Wayne County Sheriff's Office-- has received a $526,309 COPS MORE grant which will provide squad car laptop computers and a shared dispatch system. 68 cruisers in those departments will be equipped with the new mobile computer units that allow officers to perform their own background checks without the aid of dispatchers.
[Source: "Laptop Computers Will Take to the Roads; Area Law Enforcement Vehicles to Be Equipped" by Sallie Cook; Beacon Journal (Akron, OH) January 16, 1999, Pg. E1]
Item #3 CLACKAMAS COUNTY (OR) SHERIFF GETS COPS MORE GRANT FOR COMPUTERS
The Clackamas County (OR) Sheriff's Office has received a COPS MORE grant of $93,174 for new communications equipment, including laptops for cruisers. The grant will improve the year-old communications system shared by the county and police departments in Canby, Molalla and Oregon City. More information on the county can be found at http://www.co.clackamas.or.us/
[Source: "Police News;" Oregonian (Portland, OR) January 11, 1999, Pg.
E2]
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Item #4 STREAMWOOD (IL) POLICE RECEIVE GRANT FOR SQUAD CAR LAPTOPS
The Streamwood (IL) Village Board has approved $173,500 in spending for its police to buy 20 Motorola laptop units for its squad cars. Officers will be able to run their own license plate checks.
[Source: "Police, Fire Vehicles to Get New Computers;" Chicago Tribune, January 13, 1999, Pg. 7B]
Item #5 MISSISSIPPI LAW ENFORCEMENT TO GET AUTOMATED FINGERPRINTING
Mississippi law enforcement agencies will no longer have to wait days for results of fingerprint checks once AFIS equipment connects them with the state fingerprint database. Biloxi Police will soon become the first department in the state with automated fingerprinting capability, and the availability of state and federal funding will impact the spread of live-scan fingerprinting in the state.
[Source: "Technology assists lawmen" by Associated Press; State & Local Wire, January 4, 1999]
Item #6 VIRGINIA'S SEX OFFENDER WEB SITE IS DELUGED WITH VISITORS
The Virginia State Police home page has received hundreds of thousands of visits to its Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry since it went online last month. Similar sites in other states have resulted in vigilante actions against some listed offenders, but the public is reported to support Sex Offender web sites as a useful method of protecting children from such criminals.
[Source: "State Sex-Offender List Goes Online; Officials Say Their Goal is to Help Citizens Protect Themselves From Sexual Predators, But Critics Wonder What the Impact Will Be" by Holly A. Heyser; Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA) December 30, 1998, Pg. A1]
COURT TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Item # 7 A LOOK AT COURT AUTOMATION ACROSS THE COUNTRY
In the first of a three-part look at the paperless court system of the future, various state and local officials share their views on the need for court automation as means of controlling costs currently associated with preparing and administering the huge amount of paper created in many trials. Integrated criminal justice information systems can help police, courts and corrections officials share information much more efficiently, but such efforts across the country have been hampered by the lack of experience such officials have in working together. The Internet is helping to show non-technical people how easy it can be to share files, and how much of an impact it can have on court efficiency.
[Source: "Integrated Justice; the burden of proof" by Tod Newcombe;
Government Technology, December 1998, Pg. 116. The article may be accessed
at http://www.govtech.net/gtmag/1998/dec/cover/cover.shtm ]
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CORRECTIONS TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Item #8 HIGH-TECH LINCOLN COUNTY
(NC) LAW ENFORCEMENT AND DETENTION CENTER
The new Lincoln County Law Enforcement and Detention Center will open in a few months, and will include a 911 dispatch center and a 168-bed jail. The facility will include $250,000 of new computers that will be integrated and Y2K-compliant. The jail will offer video arraignment and high-tech security measures. More on the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department can be found at http://members.aol.com/Lincoln344/index.html
[Source: "New Jail Taking Shape; Lincoln's Law Center is a High-Tech Marvel" by Rick Rothacker; Charlotte Observer, January 7, 1999, Pg. 1L]
CJITI Weekly News is compiled by Jeffrey Michaels jeffreym@mitretek.org