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Law enforcement device
could
land in Aurora
Police chief to ask city to invest
in
COPLINK
to nab criminals
By
J.C. O'Connell
09/27/06
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Two decades after a parking ticket led to the arrest of serial killer
Son of Sam in New York, law enforcement agencies wanted to use that same
type of connection - with a little help from technology - to track
criminals in Colorado.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates plans to ask lawmakers Sept. 28 to invest
in COPLINK, a system that taps into different jurisdictions' existing
databases to cross-reference information.
"Catching criminals is all about relationships," said Oates, who bought
COPLINK technology as chief of police in Ann Arbor, Mich. "(With COPLINK)
you can link a phone number to a car to a person."
Oates used the case of David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, to highlight
what this service could do for the department. In 1977, a parking ticket
written near a murder scene helped lead to the arrest of Berkowitz, who
was eventually convicted of killing six people. COPLINK could make the
connection almost instantly.
Oates estimates the technology will cost about $425,000 and allow
detectives to connect to other jurisdictions' databases throughout the
Front Range.
A consortium of eight law enforcement agencies in Broomfield and
Jefferson counties are preparing to go live with COPLINK in the next
couple of weeks, said Don Wick of the Arvada Police Department.
"Often times investigators, when they are doing follow-up on a case,
have to make a lot of phone calls, have to travel to other jurisdictions
… the COPLINK software basically allows you to do one search for all
these agencies," Wick said.
The consortium raised about $800,000 through federal, county and state
grants to pay for the system, and each member could pay annual
maintenance costs of up to $20,000 depending on their size.
More than 300 jurisdictions around the county use COPLINK to cross
reference the information in gang databases, sex offender registries and
traffic ticket logs to generate leads and track down criminals, said
Robert Griffin, CEO of the Arizona-based company.
"We're able to tie all that information together," he said, adding that
the U.S. military has used COPLINK in Iraq to help track insurgents.
"This is a very popular way of doing business," Wick said. "People have
gone through the training and people have seen the demos of this and are
very excited."
If the city buys COPLINK, Aurora could link to other jurisdictions that
get COPLINK software in the future.
"It's going to reduce crime," Oates told city council when he first
requested funding for COPLINK at a Sept. 21 budget meeting. "We're going
to find bad guys a lot faster."
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