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Law officers upload a new data partner. A security network soon
will allow 58 agencies in nine counties to search each other's
information.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN
SICKLER, Times Staff Writer
06/01/05
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TAMPA - Call it Google for cops.
Internet surfers use Google's search engine to find particular Web sites
or long-lost friends. Now area law enforcement officers are using a
$2.3-million searchable database to identify suspects and solve crimes.
The Tampa Bay Security Network is a one-stop cyber spot where area
police officers, sheriff's deputies and detectives can pull up
neighboring law enforcement agencies' booking mugs, arrest reports,
witness interviews, traffic citations and dispatch reports.
The system was brought online last month, and by next year it will link
the computer systems of 58 law enforcement agencies in nine counties
from Citrus County south to Manatee. For now, the Security Network links
five Pinellas and Hillsborough County agencies and the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement.
"No longer will criminals be able to avoid detection by pulling up
stakes and moving from one municipality to another," Hillsborough
Sheriff David Gee said during a news conference Tuesday at FDLE's Tampa
office.
"Within a few minutes, investigators can conduct research or pursue
leads that otherwise would have taken days or weeks."
Before the Security Network, a detective chasing a tip had to call his
counterparts in other counties, or check several different sources for
information about a person's background.
"That is very cumbersome, very labor-intensive," said Pinellas Sheriff
Jim Coats. "And up until now, law enforcement has been very reluctant
about sharing that information. After Sept. 11, we realize how important
it is to share."
The network, funded through state and federal domestic security grants,
was created in the spirit of antiterrorism.
Terrorists rely on vast networks of support and on anonymity, said FDLE
Special Agent Supervisor Mark Dubina.
The Security Network cracks into those networks by finding relationships
between bits of information that, taken alone, might seem insignificant
or unrelated, he said.
That capability will help officers deal with all kinds of crime, not
just terrorism, said Tampa police Chief Steve Hogue.
If officers in Tampa get reports of a dark four-door sedan trolling
slowly around a school, that might seem like an isolated and minor
incident, Hogue said.
"But if this network tells us five other Tampa Bay agencies have
reported the same thing in the past week, then we're going to handle
that differently," he said.
Tampa police recently used the network to identify two armed robbery
suspects, for whom they now have arrest warrants. With little more than
the male suspect's first name and the female suspect's nickname,
investigators used the Security Network to come up with two suspects,
said Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.
Detectives showed the duo's pictures to the robbery victim, who
confirmed they were the attackers, McElroy said.
"Within a matter of hours, we went from having no leads to having our
suspects," she said. "That just shows you the power of this."
Eventually, the bay area's network will be linked to six similar ones
throughout Florida.
The Security Network is based on a technology called COPLINK, which
is used in more than 100 U.S. jurisdictions from San Diego to Boston.
In Tucson, investigators used it to find a girl who had been kidnapped,
said Lorelei Bowden, project manager of the Tampa Bay Security Network.
The girl's friend could tell police only that one man was white, the
other Hispanic, and that the girl was taken in a two-door red sedan. One
of the men called the other by a nickname that sounded like "Waydo," the
friend said.
Within a few hours, the COPLINK system steered officers toward the house
of a man who was known to drive a two-door red sedan and whose known
alias was "Waydo."
The girl was inside his house, still alive, when police arrived, Bowden
said.
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