Public Safety Technology in the News

Software Could Help Walworth County Cops Be More Efficient
GazetteXtra.com, (07/26/2009), Kayla Bunge

Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation offers BadgerTraCS, a software package installed on laptops in patrol cars that allows officers to fill out 10 forms involving traffic citations, municipal citations, warnings, accident reports and drunken-driving incident reports electronically. In operation since 2005, the software has gained use by nearly 200 agencies and three located in Walworth County (Delavan, Lake Geneva and Whitewater) plan to use grant money to sign up with the project. BadgerTraCS derives driver and vehicle data from a state database, thus facilitating completion of the forms. Officers can print copies for drivers and submit the files electronically, eliminating the need for manual data entry back at the station. Planned innovations for BadgerTraCS include the addition of forms for misdemeanor offenses and a mapping tool.
gazettextra.com/news/2009/jul/26/software-could-help-walworth-county-cops-be-more-e/

Mountain View Joins Online Crime Mapping Service, CrimeReports
Palo Alto Daily News, (07/24/2009), Diana Samuels
www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_12905364

Website Will Track Local Crime Online
Jackson Sun, (07/24/2009)
www.jacksonsun.com/article/20090724/NEWS01/907240317/1002/Website+will+track+local+crime+online

Residents of Mountain View, Texas, and Jackson, Tenn, recently gained access to the online service, CrimeReports. In Mountain View, users can use the online service CrimeReports to look up information on petty thefts, car break-ins and other crimes by accessing www.crime- reports.com or the police department’s Web site, tinyurl.com/mog9yt. Jackson residents can also access the service through the CrimeReports URL. All users may search the service, which is updated daily, by address and date range. They may also sign up for e-mail alerts letting them know that a crime has taken place near their home or business.

Mountain Home Police Web Site Offers Crime Mapping of City
BaxterBulletin.com, (07/24/2009), Janet Nelson

Staff at the Mountain Home (Ark.) Police Department have updated a Google map to create a crime mapping tool that local residents can access. Police Chief Carry Manuel and criminal investigator Robert Harden have added the tool to the department’s Web site, located at www.mtnhomepolice.com, on June 1. The information is added manually and includes a selected sample of crimes derived from daily incident reports. Only crimes within the city’s jurisdiction are displayed and the list can be filtered by crime type.
www.baxterbulletin.com/article/20090724/NEWS01/907240334/1002

Forensics on the Move
Officer.com, July 2009, Rebecca Kanable

Mobile crime laboratories allow crime scene technicians and analysts to drive to the perimeter of a crime scene to perform their work. These labs usually target homicides, meth labs and arson events and can also be used for blood alcohol testing. Their most common purpose is to help collect and properly store evidence; relatively few have sophisticated analysis capabilities, and their use is common among agencies serving areas with more than 150,000 residents.
www.officer.com/print/Law-Enforcement-Technology/Forensics-on-the-move/1$47586

Houston’s New Simulator Trains Deputies for Real Situations
The SunNews, (07/27/2009), Becky Purser

Officers with the Houston County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office are learning about the proper use of force thanks to a $52,000 training simulator purchased earlier this year. All deputies who carry weapons have undergone mandatory training, wherein they interact with scenarios projected on a life-size screen. Training officers can branch the scenarios into several different endings depending on the officer’s actions. The simulator, bought with recovered funds from drug-related cases, includes more than 300 scenarios that include hostage-taking, robberies and confronting aggressive individuals in a variety of situations as diverse as a courthouse and a fitness center.
www.macon.com/197/story/789910.html

Law Enforcement Gets Real Time Data to Track Offenders
EyeWitness9News, (07/27/2009), Jennifer Canada

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation provides instant access to driver’s license photos, probation and parole records and other critical information to law enforcement officers through the Division of Criminal Information network. This services gives new access to critical information previously unavailable to officers on the street, such as a driver’s license photo to check identity or whether someone is on probation. This access is the result of cooperation between the SBI, the state Department of Corrections, the Division of Motor Vehicles and national authorities. The DCI network is run through the North Carolina Department of Justice and previously provided access to state and national wanted person and missing person files, protection orders, criminal history records and sex offender registrations, and state-specific files such as court records and concealed handgun permits. Probation and parole information only recently became readily available and appr! oximately 10,000 related inquiries have been made on a weekly basis in the early weeks of the project. North Carolina is the first state to pilot use of a new information sharing infrastructure to provide driver’s license photos and corrections information. This structure eventually will become available nationwide.
www.wnct.com/nct/news/local/article/law_enforcement_gets_real_time_data_to_track_offenders/46120/

Cops Go High-Tech to Find Missing Kids
Gwinnett Daily Post, (08/01/2009), Heath Hamacher

The Auburn (Ga.) Police Department has joined in a formal agreement with A Child is Missing, a nonprofit organization that helps recover children and other missing persons across the country. Whenever an individual is reported missing, the department calls the organization’s headquarters and makes a report to an information and mapping technician. The technician in turn initiates phone calls to local residences and businesses. Alert messages go out at the rate of 1,000 every minute and include a description, last known location and other information. The program automatically calls only listed numbers, but individuals can sign up cell phone numbers or unlisted numbers at http:// www.achildismissing.org. The organization provides assistance related to cases of missing children, college students, individuals with disabilities and the elderly.
www.gwinnettdailypost.com/main.asp?SectionID=6&SubSectionID=6&ArticleID=62771&TM=797.185

Initial Interest High for Carbon Motors E7 Police Car
WCPO.com, (07/31/2009), Tom McKee

Carbon Motors officials say police departments have already expressed interest in ordering at least 10,000 of the new E7 “super car” slated for production in Connersville, Ind., beginning in 2012. The E7 will come with bulletproof door and dash panels, radiation and biological threat detectors, an automatic license plate recognition system and integrated emergency lights, and run on diesel fuel.
www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Initial-Interest-High-For-Carbon-Motors-E7-Police/ZBCw-8_5z0SirHu0DcXBhg.cspx

Cell Phone-Sniffing Dogs on Patrol Prison
KOMONews.com, (07/30/2009), Joel Moreno

The Monroe County (Wash.) Correctional Complex uses the services of Jesse, a Labrador mix, and her handler to help in the war against cell phones. The dog detection program began in October 2008 and has proven highly effective, according Scott Frakes, superintendent of the Monroe Correctional Complex. Inmates can use cell phones for a number of illicit activities and often share them around a cell block. In Monroe County, inmates caught with a cell phone face a number of sanctions.
www.komonews.com/news/local/52131892.html

Arkansas Prisons Plan Biometric Checkpoints for Guards
Associated Press, (07/30/2009)

The state of Arkansas plans to begin using fingerprint scanners (presently used to track only visitors) to monitor guards. The initiative was triggered by an escape in which two convicted murders wearing guard uniforms walked out the front gate of one of the state’s institutions in June 2009. Scanners will first go into operations at the Cummins Unit, from which the two convicted murderers escaped in June. They were captured in New York several days later. Plans also call for possible installation of radio tags in ID badges.
www.baxterbulletin.com/article/20090730/NEWS01/907300328/1002/Arkansas-prisons-plan-biometric-checkpoints-for-guards