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Police
'Google'-like tool will link police records, go after criminals
7/02/2008
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Crime-fighting just got a
lot easier at the Mesa Police Department.
The department jumped a significant hurdle in
implementing a new investigative tool for officers
called COPLINK, known as "Google" for police, to search
confidential criminal information maintained by law
enforcement agencies. Currently, Mesa can only search
its own database.
The system uploads new Mesa police reports and field
information taken by officers every hour. They
eventually hope to bring in new data every 10 minutes.
"It gives the police an ability to look at what might be
unrelated events and link them together for a quicker or
better resolution for the crime," Mesa Police Technical
Services Administrator Shirl Butler said.
Sgt. Lance Heivilin, who oversees the East Valley Gang
and Crime Information Fusion Center, said the change
will increase the productivity, efficiency and
effectiveness of the center.
"It opens all kinds of doors for us," Heivilin said. "It
will reduce the time it takes to show the links and time
is critical in these investigations. It takes work that
would take hours to a day, to minutes or seconds."
What is COPLINK
COPLINK is software that taps into the databases of
numerous law enforcement agencies and analyzes
information to generate lists of potential suspects. It
searches connections between people, places and crime
patterns by looking up mug shots, partial license
plates, arrest records and identifying marks such as
tattoos.
More than 500 agencies nationwide have adopted the
program since it was developed in 2002 by Knowledge
Computing Corporation of Tucson.
The bigger picture
Four law enforcement serve as providers of AZLINK, the
state's version of COPLINK: Mesa, Phoenix and Tucson
police, and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
Mesa will house the system and provide access to other
East Valley agencies like Chandler, Gilbert and Tempe.
Peoria police tap into the Phoenix's system.
Who's on board
Gilbert police are undergoing testing to make the system
operational, Butler said. Chandler and Tempe police are
installing communication lines, and Scottsdale is
ordering the equipment. All the agencies are working to
prepare data for conversion to COPLINK.
Local divisions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs and
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are on
board to join the system. Salt River Pima-Maricopa
Indian Community police are considering joining.
What's next
This month, Mesa patrol officers will learn to use the
system. Thus far, Mesa detectives, crime analysts and
East Valley Gang and Crime Information staff have been
trained. The department's major case squad has had some
success already.
By the end of the year, the East Valley agencies are
expected to be sharing information. Mesa police
installed the system in October and began loading data
in early November. The system has about 275,000 police
records dating to May 2005. They hope to go back 25
years.
Early next year, Mesa police hope to start sharing
information with Tucson, Orange County, Calif., Phoenix
and San Diego.
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