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Police Agencies to Link Data
By Adam Folk
The Augusta Chronicle,
Staff Writer
04/12/07
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After six years, local law enforcement agencies announced Wednesday that
they had secured federal funding for a new interlinked computer database
to aid in identifying and apprehending criminal suspects.
The CSRA IntelliNET will join seven sheriffs and public safety
departments in a program called COPLINK. It will allow them to quickly
share data on arrests, the identification of subjects and other
information currently limited to each department's computer system.
Representatives from each of the seven agencies - the Aiken County
Sheriff's Office, Aiken Department of Public Safety, Richmond County
Sheriff's Office, Burke County Sheriff's Office, Columbia County
Sheriff's Office, Edgefield County Sheriff's Office and North Augusta
Department of Public Safety - witnessed a demonstration of the program
during a news conference at Augusta Marriott Hotel & Suites in downtown
Augusta.
U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., praised the agencies for their "foresight
and stick-to-itiveness" in working to acquire the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security grant that will fund COPLINK. He said that by aiding
everyday police work in the community, COPLINK will "help us all to deal
with the not-so-day-to-day problem of international terrorism."
The program is expected to cost about $1.4 million, which is supplied by
the Homeland Security Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program.
The $34.6 million provided by the program will be divvied among more
than 2,000 first responders across the nation and is designed to ensure
that smaller jurisdictions, along with eligible metropolitan areas, have
the equipment needed to meet their homeland security mission.
Area agencies frequently work with one another to apprehend suspects in
the area, and Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength said the new
program will allow them to speed up the process and fill in any gaps in
their information, as long as the information inside the program is
entered in a timely manner.
"It's going to be a great tool, but these types of things are only as
good as the information put in them," Sheriff Strength said. "I don't
think there will be a problem with any of these agencies keeping this
information up in the computer."
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