Law Enforcement & Corrections Technology

NLECTC Law Enforcement & Corrections Technology News Summary
Thursday, November 30, 2006

"Prison Blazes Technological Trail With Kiosks"
Allentown Morning Call (11/26/06); Varghese, Romy

Lehigh County Prison in Pennsylvania will be in installing an ATM-like kiosk for friends and family members of inmates to deposit money into inmate accounts. The system will replace an intake clerk while expanding deposit hours to 14 hours per day, seven days per week. Compass Group USA will operate the kiosk as well as the commissary under a three-year contract that will cost Lehigh County Prison nothing. In fact the prison will receive 37 percent of gross sales, says Lehigh director of corrections Edward Sweeney. There will be fees to deposit into inmate accounts, such as a $1 fee for a $50 deposit or less, or a $2.50 fee for over $50. Inmates can use their accounts to purchase goods at the commissary or receive cash when they are released.
http://www.mcall.com
/news/local/all-b3-5kio
sknov26,0,5701615.story

"Police Use 'Black Box' Data to Investigate Car Crashes"
Associated Press (11/26/06)

Police in Ohio have used the event data recorders installed in newer vehicles in 43 accident investigations to determine culpability. "As opposed to wondering what happened, this black box takes all the guessing out of it," says Carmen Naso, an assistant prosecutor in Cuyahoga County. These "black boxes" can provide information on speed at the time of an accident, throttle pressure, and whether the brake was applied and a seat belt worn. Nearly 64 percent of all of last year's car models have the equipment, unknown to many owners. However, automakers will be required to disclose the existence of the recorders in owner manuals starting with 2011 models.
http://www.examiner.com
/a-420708~Police_use__b
lack_box__data_to_inves
tigate_car_crashes.html

"Virtual 911 Tackles Online Child Threats"
Washington Times (11/24/06) P. A4; Seper, Jerry

American, British, Canadian, and Australian police officials are partnering in an effort to curb crimes committed against children via the Internet. The Virtual Global Taskforce seeks to establish a "police presence" on the Web to protect children in partnering countries, according to the initiative's chairman, Jim Gamble. Investigators will share information concerning potential threats and can respond quickly to arrest suspects. A law enforcement agency in each member country shares the responsibility of monitoring Internet-based threats at different times of the day. The member countries indicated that they are interested in exploring the possibility of holding talks with industry officials about employing technologies that increase the safety of children.
http://www.washingtontimes.com
/national/20061123-111736-8505r.htm

"Posse Segways Into Mall Patrol Duties Over Holidays"
East Valley Tribune (AZ) (11/24/06); Martin, Nick

Maricopa County Sheriffs in Arizona will be patrolling area malls this holiday shopping season and using Segway Personal Transporters to do it. The department has decided to use Segways because these devices can move police officers quickly, and because they raise officers eight inches off the ground so officers can peer above and across crowds. Segway is now marketing two Segway models specifically designed for police use. Maricopa County began its holiday mall patrol in 1993, last year including some members of the heavily armed SWAT team, which drew criticism as too much.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com
/index.php?sty=79519

"Police Getting New Guns"
Rock Hill Herald (SC) (11/25/06); Garfield, Matt

The Rock Hill Police Department has supplied roughly four-fifths of its police officers with Glock handguns. The majority of officers working at other police agencies in York County already carry Glock pistols. Rock Hill Police previously used Smith & Wesson pistols, which feature the same firing and operating features of the Glock. However, the Glock is manufactured from materials that offer greater protection against rust and also have an extra safety mechanism.
http://dwb.heraldonline.com
/local/story/6250497p-5456225c.html

"Police Say Their Study Supports Request for More Tasers"
Columbus Dispatch (OH) (11/25/06) P. 1A; Ferenchik, Mark

The controversy over the safety of Tasers has not stopped the Columbus police department from attempting to purchase an additional 110. Two years ago, the City Council approved a $229,658 contract for the city to purchase 200 Tasers. Since Tasers have been introduced, police have used Mace and batons less frequently, says Barb Seckler, Deputy Public Safety Director. The Tasers cost $100,000. The City Council is planning a meeting to discuss a police report on last year's Taser use and review the department's request. The report will be presented by Brian Bruce at the Police Division's defensive tactics unit, along with the division's Taser expert. Taser use was effective 70 percent of the time, according to Bruce. Others are not so sure about its effectiveness. "The concern is less about the technology and more about the person wielding the technology," says Gary Daniels at the ACLU of Ohio. Currently, more than 500 Ohio law enforcement agencies use Tasers.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com
/news/news.php?story=dispatch/ne
ws/news_archive_v3.php

"U.S. Shares Fingerprint Database"
Ventura County Star (CA) (11/26/06); Scheibe, John

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is taking advantage of the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department's move to provide local law enforcement agencies with faster access to electronic fingerprint databases. Suspects were often freed in the past without police knowing whether they were wanted for other crimes because of the time required to conduct background checks. The new federal initiative has helped officers to more quickly identify illegal immigrants. The Ventura County Sheriff's Department, which is not benefiting from the faster access, reportedly plans to introduce a field system in roughly a year that will allow patrolling officers to conduct quick background checks. U.S. officials hope to grant all law enforcement agencies in the nation the opportunity to expedite background checks within two years.
http://www.venturacountystar.com/

"Helmet-Cams Help Police Crack Down on Crime"
CNet (11/21/06); Ferguson, Tim

U.K. police officers in the Haringey area of London will be using helmet-mounted digital cameras as a new crime-fighting and evidence-gathering tool as part of Operation Aventail. These AA battery-sized cameras store images on a special utility belt. The whole system costs around $3,402. Haringey Detective Superintendent Richard Wood says these small helmet cameras will help officers gather and provide "evidence" to document offenses and bring charges. If this limited use works, other Haringey officers may begin to adopt helmet-mounted digital cameras, says Wood.
http://news.com.com
/Helmet-cams+help+polic
e+crack+down+on+crime
/2100-11746_3-6137519.html

"Squad Car Locators Blocked"
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (11/23/06); Diedrich, John

Every squad car in Milwaukee's District 7 now has to be checked during patrol and at the start of every shift after Capt. Donald Gaglione noticed foil wrapped around the global positioning system (GPS) antennas on police cars this past summer. The foil was apparently placed there to disable the GPS, which makes the car invisible to dispatchers. GPS devices can be used against officers by internal investigators. For instance, one assistant chief was fired when the GPS found his residence to be outside Milwaukee. Some say the incident is proof that the Fire and Police Commission should pay close attention to police behavior. The department installed GPS trackers in 2004 to roughly 650 of its squad cars. Milwaukee Police Association President John Balcerzak says he was not aware of the foil incident and that the union supports the system. "The MPA is not condoning disabling GPS or any other equipment issued to officers," he explains. "We would discourage anyone who might be thinking about doing that." An internal investigation into the incident has not been opened because someone besides officers may have sabotaged the vehicles.
http://www.jsonline.com
/story/index.aspx?id=534578

"Eyes In the Sky Help Kentucky Authorities Cut Marijuana Trade"
Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) (11/27/06)

This year, Kentucky police burned 557,276 marijuana plants, a nearly 50,000 increase from last year. The Kentucky National Guard first started their efforts to destroy marijuana plants back in 1986 and that effort is still ongoing. Police made 475 arrests this year compared to 452 last year. Help has been coming in the form of helicopters and airplanes, which were brought in by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for six weeks this past summer. "Anybody in this business will tell you the more eyes you get in the sky, the more dope you'll find," said Lt. Ed Shemelya of the Kentucky State Police. Kentucky is one of the top-ranked outdoor marijuana producers in the country. Marijuana growers have become more sophisticated at hiding their plants, which is why Kentucky employs the use of the police, troops, and several state and federal agencies to assist with eradication. "They don't like the state police coming in messing with their economy," said Letcher County Sheriff Danny Webb. Kentucky came in second to California last year in the number of eradicated plants, according to the DEA.
http://www.herald-dispatch.com
/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20
061125/NEWS01/61125001

"Schools Train for Shooters"
Fort Payne Times-Journal (11/22/06); Burns, Kati

School counselors, school principals, and other school officials in DeKalb County, Ala., recently received a two-day tutorial on preparing for a school shooting. Local law enforcement agents also attended the "Responding to Active Shooter Incidents for Patrol Officers" program, which was led by law enforcement officials associated with the University of North Alabama's Law Enforcement Training Center. The first part of the program, which consisted of a slide show and lecture, covered an array of topics, including school and workplace shootings; the tactics and equipment needed to immediately respond to such shootings; emergency planning for schools and workplaces; profiles of school shooters; how to respond to the media; a historical overview of school shootings; and tactics for rescuing downed officers. The second part of the program featured a live mock exercise at a local high school in which law enforcement reacted to a shooter inside the building. School officials were advised not to allow students to participate in mock exercises, because there has been at least one incident in the past where a student who participated in an exercise used this knowledge to launch a real attack on a school.
http://www.times-journal.com

"Completing the Data Puzzle"
Government Technology (11/06) Vol. 19, No. 11, P. 36; McKay, Jim

The sharing of critical data by police across the state of Florida is a major issue. The University of Central Florida implemented the Florida Integrated Network for Data Exchange and Retrieval (FINDER) system in 2003, and similar regional systems in Pensacola, Tampa, and Jacksonville were later launched. There is no communication between these four regional systems, so last year the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) embarked on Florida Law Enforcement Exchange (FLEX), a project to create compatible information systems to serve Florida's three remaining regions along with the department, and eventually connect to the other systems to form a statewide platform for information exchange. The first stage in FLEX's implementation, the development of similar data vocabulary across the state's seven regions, is complete. Stage two will involve the equipage of the three new regional projects with a common communications architecture, and the final stage will constitute the deployment of an analytical visualization application for mining information and developing investigative leads. By complying with the Global Justice XML Data Model, the systems will facilitate the statewide sharing of information. There will be one server or node in the FLEX system for each region and the FDLE, with data warehousing performed by each node. It is up to the individual regions as to what kind of data will be warehoused, but all data will be accessible to properly authorized law enforcement staff across the state.
http://www.govtech.net
/magazine/story.php?id=102123

"Talk Isn't Cheap"
Federal Computer Week (11/13/06) Vol. 20, No. 39, P. 33; Joch, Alan

Lack of interoperability between radio systems continues to be a vexing problems in many areas, as individual jurisdictions have had some success making their various agencies' systems interoperable but there has been more difficulty getting things aligned with neighboring jurisdictions. The ultimate answer could be for everyone to adopt industry-standard Project 25 systems and handsets, but the migration is costly and slow so far, so many officials have been looking at other solutions for the interim. Some ideas in use are having neighboring jurisdictions buy multiple radios so they can communicate with each other, putting together gateways to translate between different communications systems, or creating networks that can transmit radio communications that have been converted into data packets. The gateway concept uses system-to-system packages or voice-to-IP conversion, through systems available from companies such as Raytheon JPS, Motorola, Maycom, and SmartLink. Meanwhile, the network approach--vendors include Cisco Systems, Awins, and Codespear--links radio towers directly to network routers, which has the advantage of being able to handle many types of analog and digital systems as well as IP and cellular devices. One region that has put the network approach into practice is the area around Danville, Va., where regional officials found it to be more cost effective than other alternative such as adopting common frequencies or using repeaters to extend the city's radio coverage--Cisco is paying to put this system in place, with potential plans to charge for maintenance once it is working. A similar system is in place in Livingston County, Mich., but rather than link radio towers permanently to network routers, the county is using portable IP-based Codespear units along with Codespear's SmartMsg and Radio Interoperability Module. Implementing such a system requires non-technical management savvy as well: officials should have a long-range plan in place, seek stakeholder input and build consensus, put together a governance board for policy questions and modifications, and prepare ahead of time for potential manpower issues.
http://www.fcw.com
/article96766-11-13-06-Print

"City Port Security Gets Boost"
Chicago Tribune (11/29/06); Hilkevitch, Jon

For the first time ever, ports in the Chicago region have been listed on the top 100 most critical seaports in the country, and along with that ranking has come an influx of federal funding to help improve port security in the region. For the previous four years, Chicago received just $300,000 in federal funding for securing its ports, but this year the U.S. government is distributing $11.5 million in security funding to the ports, including $7.5 million to Chicago. The funding will be used to increase the amount of video surveillance at the ports; to enhance communications among local, state, and federal agencies; and to outfit container shipments with intrusion-detection security technology. As is typically the case at other U.S. ports, only roughly 5 percent of incoming cargo is randomly inspected at Chicago ports, and no cargo containers are X-rayed. Chicago is also applying for an additional $4 million to equip the Port of Chicago with security and inspection devices. Local officials at the Port of Chicago said that their greatest fear is that the port--which provides access to countless freight trains, long-haul trucks, ocean vessels, and river barges--will be targeted by a dirty bomb hidden inside a cargo container.
http://www.chicagotribune.com
/technology/chi-0611290046no
v29,1,2643074.story?coll=chi-t
echnology-hed

"NM Tech Designing High-Tech Mobile Command Shelter"
New Mexico Business Weekly (11/13/06); Trenkle, Jason

The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (N.M. Tech) plans to build a $5 million movable command center/shelter in Playas, N.M., that will also be used as a federal training site. The structure, dubbed the Command and Control System, may also be used to monitor illegal aliens along the country's border with Mexico, says Greg Mansfield, developer of the system at N.M. Tech. The shelter would resemble a trailer, but would be well protected from the weather, radiation, and electromagnetic interference, says Mansfield. The structure would be made from carbon, glass fiber, and composite materials in collaboration with a company called Alkan Shelters. A similar unit is now being used at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which employs the unit to perform nuclear contingency training, according to Lauren Whitehurst at Presence, an Alkan marketing affiliate. In addition, the shelter would be able to protect equipment that is used to deploy information in real time to distant central command centers. N.M. Tech has a roughly $1 million contract with the Department of Defense (DOD) to train DOD employees and enhance infrastructure. In 2003, the institute acquired a large section of land in Playas, and currently uses it to train members of the Border Patrol, Homeland Security, and the Army National Guard.
http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com
/albuquerque/stories/2006/11/13/story12.html

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