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Funding for new
police tool approved. COPLINK purchase paired with other metro
area buys.
By J.C.
O'Connell
The Aurora Sentinel
1/7/2008
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Local lawmakers approved funding Monday
night, Jan. 7, for COPLINK, a computer software system that some say
will revolutionize the way criminals are caught in Aurora.
Aurora City Council awarded $329,221 to Knowledge Computing Corp. for
the software management system.
"It's going to be the most exciting thing we've done in policing in this
state in a long time," said Police Chief Dan Oates, who purchased the
same technology as chief of police in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The system allows police to search a variety of databases, including sex
offender registries, court citations and records from various
departments. More than 600 jurisdictions throughout the country use the
system. Locally, all of the municipalities in Jefferson County use it.
In addition to allowing Aurora police officers to better integrate their
own data and profiles on criminal suspects, the technology will help law
enforcement departments across Colorado exchange information more
quickly, supporters said.
The software is also being acquired by seven other Colorado
municipalities, Oates said.
Together, the law enforcement agencies that signed an agreement with
Aurora to purchase the software and share information across the system,
represent a total force of 4,749 law enforcement officers.
Oates said it will take two to three months to get COPLINK up and
running.
Oates originally proposed acquiring the system in 2006 for $425,000, but
the city was able to negotiate a lower price because other jurisdictions
agreed to also purchase the technology.
Councilwoman Molly Markert, who was initially skeptically of COPLINK,
congratulated Oates and the city's IT Department on their work, calling
COPLINK a "metro-wide solution to a metro-wide problem."
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