December 1998

Law Enforcement Meets the 21st Century

Debra Sheer Haverson

It's not exactly Robo Cop, but digital fingerprint and mug shot recognition, computer-aided dispatch, electronic forms and other technologies are helping modern police forces to stay one step ahead of crime.

A car attracts the attention of a state police officer on patrol because it has only one working headlight. The officer follows the car for a few blocks and at the next light, enters a license plate search into his laptop computer. Within seconds, he sees -- via mobile digital communications -- that the owner of the vehicle has an arrest record for dealing drugs and skipped bail last week in a nearby state.

He radios for backup before putting on his siren to pull over the car. With another squad car behind him, he cautiously approaches the vehicle, informs the driver of the broken light and asks to see a license and registration. The license shows a name different than that of the owner, and a check on this license shows nothing. "My girlfriend lent me her brother's car," the motorist says.

The officer again turns to his mobile computer and requests a mug shot image of the vehicle's owner, which soon appears on his screen. It seems to be the driver he has stopped. He takes a thumbprint with a portable digital scanner and transmits it to the station house. The computer verifies it against the neighboring state's computer. Within minutes he receives a positive ID and he arrests the suspect.

Although the technology in this scenario currently exists, it probably will be a few years before police officers actually have all these capabilities. For-profit companies already employ similar hardware and software to stay competitive and to deliver better customer service. Fundamental records management and document imaging systems are being joined by digital fingerprint and mug shot imaging, automated arrest booking, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems and workflow applications that pass relevant information from each step of the crime-fight process to the next. With increased support and initiative from the U.S. government, local agencies are even beginning to integrate their systems with state and federal authorities.

Imaging Simplifies Fingerprinting

Perhaps the most publicized imaging advance in law enforcement is the replacement of ink-based fingerprinting with live-scan technology -- also known as automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS). An AFIS is faster, more accurate and definitely less messy. However, the greatest benefit will come from the fact that digitized imaging makes it possible to do electronic searching and matching of fingerprints -- not just within a jurisdiction, but nationwide.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation leads the initiative in the use of AFIS. Its National Crime Information Center (NCIC) in Clarksburg, WV, houses NCIC 2000. This long-awaited upgrade of the FBI's criminal database is scheduled to become widely available online on July 1, 1999. Now in its pilot stage, police departments access data communications gateways at the state criminal justice level to use dedicated lines to the FBI. Naturally, data security will be a major priority and challenge in setting up a more permanent communications infrastructure.

The FBI database includes not only fingerprint images, but also parole and probation records, a convicted-sex-offender registry and mug shots and other visual images that can be researched with enhanced search algorithms.

Officers will gain quick access to prior arrest records and pending warrants on the suspects they detain and arrest. This will greatly reduce the incidence of releasing those arrested on minor charges only to discover later that they were wanted for more serious crimes.

It can still take months for the FBI to identify fingerprints from inked cards. But come July, the digital fingerprint system promises a positive identification within two hours (i.e. while the individual remains in police custody).

Many states are working to fund and implement not only the live-scan technology, but also the telecommunications lines, switches and software to take advantage of NCIC 2000's promised capabilities. Police departments throughout the U.S. still use ink for fingerprinting, but they are likely to add optical scanners to digitize the inked image and pass this data to the FBI through its Interim Distributed Identification System.

Boston PD Gains 40,000 Manhours

A pilot program in Boston has already received fingerprint IDs in less than two days. The Boston Police Department (BPD) has already realized significant benefits from live-scan fingerprinting. Before it turned to live-scan four-year ago, the department used a lot of personnel time just transporting prisoners to a centralized ID facility for prints and mug shots. Departmental rules dictated that two officers were assigned to this detail.

"We were spending in excess of 40,000 hours transporting prisoners," says BPD Deputy Commissioner William Casey. The process was so time consuming that, at busy times, the department simply did not have the resources to print and photograph those arrested for misdemeanors. According to Casey, the FBI estimates that U.S. police departments arrest then release 25,000 wanted persons each year because they can't hold such prisoners long enough to check all identification.

Boston's new TouchPrint 600 fingerprint system is supplied by Identix (Sunnyvale, CA, 408-731-2000 www.identix.com). Live-scan units are installed at each of the department's 11 precincts and at headquarters. Each unit sells for less than $50,000, with exact cost determined based on the volume purchased and the number of connected workstations. The workstation provides one interface for data collection, fingerprint capture, card print and record transmission. Full and rolled fingerprint impressions are captured on a touch screen in full grayscale at 600 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution.

The live-scan units link to a server with integrated cooperative processing "Constable" software custom-written by Comnetix Computer Systems (Mississauga, ON, Canada, 905-274-4060). This system serves the entire arrest process, capturing and storing data for the arrest report in an Oracle database, along with the digitized fingerprints and mug shot.

With 40,000 hours of labor saved annually, a cost-benefit analysis convinced the city to allocate funds. Hours saved meant more on-the-street protection without expanding the police force.

Records Management Gathers the Evidence

Ideally, a police department's information technology would integrate all types of information -- be it documents (reports and hand-written notes), dispatch or arrest data entered by fields, incident reports, fingerprints, mug shots, evidence and crime scene photos, videotaped testimonies or even audio clips of 911 calls that may later yield clues to a crime. Officers could call up a case number or use a search engine to access all related information.

About the same time that Boston first implemented live-scan in 1995, it also sought to keep more officers on the street through the development of a records management system. The department wanted to purchase laptop computers and telecommunications capability for squad cars so officers could enter reports without coming into the station. The department's initial application for a federal grant was turned down, perhaps because it seemed too expensive and ambitious for that time.

The concept of remote report entry is gaining more acceptance today. The BPD revised its plan and reapplied for the grant, and it did receive funds to build a new centralized system with access from desktop PCs already in use at the precincts. It purchased Digital Equipment Corp.'s (DEC, now Compaq Computers) Alpha 4100 server and hired DEC's Network and Systems Integration Division (LOCATION/PHONE/WEB) to assist in the project.

The client-server system, with Microsoft Sequel Server database, uses a highly secure frame-relay WAN. Officers must still take notes in the field, then come into the station to file incident reports. But once these reports are filed, the case management process becomes automated. A supervising officer reviews all new reports and, with the click of a button, assigns it to a detective. The detective's computer alerts him or her to the new assignment and specifies the necessary steps in the investigation. Based on the case number, this database also extracts specified data from a separate CAD (dispatch) system.

Digital's donation of a $100,000 Altavista search engine has enabled the BPD to perform data mining on crime statistics. The intelligence department uses key-word searches to become more proactive in catching criminals. IS has not yet linked this system with the arrest/fingerprint database because verification of the print IDs does not does not occur quickly enough. The BPD will make arrest reports, fingerprints and mug shot accessible from one workstation when the FBI delivers the promised two-hour ID response time.

Small-town PD Cuts Paperwork

While the private industry has tamed its most paper-intensive activities, the forms-intensive world of law enforcement has been slower to adopt imaging and other proven technologies. By 1996, the Pleasantville, NJ police department had accumulated so many paper records that it began using one of its prisoner holding cells as a file storage room.

The department's first reaction was to find a more efficient way to store paper, possibly through the use of movable racks. Fortunately, a salesperson suggested a document imaging system, and Sergeant Michael Harris, who manages the department's records center, recognized this as a better long-term solution.

Completed early this year, the first implementation of imaging at the Pleasantville PD involved minimal changes in operations. Police officers continued to type in reports and submit them to the central records department for processing. Clerks then captured these reports using a high-speed scanner (TYPE?) and a production imaging system from Minolta Information Systems (Ramsey, NJ 201-512-5800, www.misi.minolta.com).

With the system in place to capture new reports and convert legacy documents, Harris quickly recognized that the department could make the entire process more efficient. Instead of starting with paperwork, officers now type records directly into the Minolta system's SQL relational database. The system can use this data to fill in a standard federal Uniform Crime Report (UCR). All information entering the system -- dispatch information, arrest reports, crime reports, and investigative notes -- is linked to related information and retrieved at the desktop through the use of assigned case numbers. The system can also store digitized 911 calls, video interviews, crime scene photos, mug shots, fingerprints and radio transmissions. This makes it much easier to compile records when a case goes to court. A built-in search engine allows for searches on key fields. This saves staff time in compiling crime statistics to meet local, state and Federal reporting requirements.

The 55-officer Pleasantville PD has placed a high priority on expanding the Minolta MI3MS 3000 Plus system to include an optical jukebox. Prices for the MI3MS system range from $25,000 for a stand-alone version to more than $300,000 for the larger 500-user networked version.

Computers Automate Dispatch

Although the term computer aided dispatch (CAD) describes any system that involves a phone and police dispatcher, actual products vary greatly in their capability, ranging from first generation home-grown systems to ones that are part of an integrated law enforcement solution.

Printrak (Anaheim, CA 714-238-2000 www.printrakinternational.com) and HTE (Winter Park, FL, 407-304-3235, www.hteinc.com) both offer CAD systems that interface with E-911, mobile data, and emergency medical and fire station dispatch, and they support dispatchers with computerized mapping functionality.

Printrak's Digital Justice Solution employs an SQL database on a Tandem fault tolerant server with Windows NT workstations. It incorporates live-scan fingerprinting, digital mug shots, records management, CAD and jail management. Printrak teams up with other vendors to integrate mobile data for the CAD system.

Like Printrak, HTE offers software for incident reporting, case management and jail system management. It differs in that it uses interfaces to link electronic fingerprint systems from three other vendors and a mug shot ID application from a fourth vendor, but has its own mobile data applications. It has traditionally offered its products for the IBM AS/400 line of computers, but in October it launched PoliceWorks Software, a suite of applications that use the Windows NT platform. Product pricing is based on the size and configuration of the system as determined by criteria such as area population, number of calls, number of agencies sharing data.

Business Information Systems (La Crescenta, CA 213-245-3691) also markets a criminal justice solution. It features modular applications for dispatch, arrest reports, crime analysis, mobile data communications and many other functions. A unique product offering is its hand-held ticket writing system, which not only prints out tickets on all-weather paper, it also checks the jurisdiction's database for stolen vehicles, delinquent tickets or an outstanding warrant for the vehicle's owner. This is not a real-time, wireless communications device. Information is uploaded to a PC or host computer at the end of each shift.

Mobile data or wireless communications will be the most exciting trend related to dispatch applications. 800 MHz radio systems and the cellular technology will enable two-way voice and digital communications so that officers can stay close to the areas they patrol, keying reports directly into laptops then transmitting to the station. This eliminates redundant note taking and reduces the amount of driving back and forth to the station to file incident reports. Within seconds of keying in the license plate of a vehicle, officers can query national and state computers and even retrieve information from other states about the car and the owner to which it is registered. This can result in arrests or recovery of stolen vehicles without inconveniencing citizens who may have no other violation than a broken headlight.

The Pleasantville PD has received a grant to purchase this type of radio system and hopes to acquire other grant money to purchase laptops. The state of Connecticut also has two mobile data projects. Forty-four municipal police departments have already implemented the use of laptops and cellular digital technology in 585 patrol cars. This serves as a prototype for the planned state police project, which will use an 800 MHz radio system.

Connecticut Gets Integrated

Integration between various applications within a department creates many efficiencies, but on its own, it doesn't take into account the amount of redundant data entry and report creation that occurs when various government agencies maintain separate information systems. This inter-agency integration requires more than just technical know-how. It involves subtle political and turf issues.

The state of Connecticut has begun a multi-year plan to develop an integrated Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS). According to Terry Schnure of the state's Office of Policy and Management, Connecticut recognized in the 1970s that it should integrate disparate systems to eliminate duplicate data and share information more effectively. The state twice researched the possibility of integrating systems, but both times it concluded the technology was unavailable or unaffordable.

Then in 1992, new federal drug enforcement legislation set up a formula grant program called the Byrne Memorial Fund, which made funds available for establishing criminal justice records improvement programs. To qualify, Connecticut revisited the findings of its 1988 study and looked into what other states had implemented. The result was a 1993 plan for an Offender Based Tracking System (OBTS) and a list of other proposed projects. The OBTS will bring many of the IS activities of the individual state agencies together.

The Byrne Fund agreed to contribute $300,000 to $400,000 per year to the effort with a maximum total of $1 million. Officials knew this wouldn't even come close to paying for the planned OBTS, which on its own will cost more than $20 million over a five-year period. The state finally agreed to fund much of the difference through bond issues, and Schnure's office has secured additional grants through the National Criminal History Improvement Program, the Statewide Identification System and the more recently established National Sex Offender Registry Program.

Connecticut has managed to fund, plan and gain cooperation and collaboration between not only different state agencies, but also with 44 municipal police departments. When the initiative began, the executive branch (including police) and the court system had their own legacy systems, which still met their needs well. The first step in the project created a customized link between the two computers.

"From that came an extensive amount of data sharing," says Schnure, explaining how it now takes 24 hours, instead of months, to record new convictions on the criminal rap sheets in the police computer. In current and planned projects, including a new on-line booking system, the CJIS goal is to enter data once -- whether image or word -- and make it accessible in an organized way to all agencies that need it.

Technology Gains Acceptance

No one denies that law enforcement needs to catch up with available technology. Bruce Jones, Crimes Product Manager for HTE, says that some police departments still use index card dispatch systems. He predicts, however, that almost every police department will become more automated within the next decade with increases in product availability at more affordable prices. Year 2000 initiatives also are leading some to reevaluate and improve their computer systems.

The greatest ongoing challenge, according to Frank Alexopoulos, a project manager in the Boston PD, is getting the users to buy into the system. Many of the officers, particularly the more senior officers, don't like to enter their reports directly into the records management system, so someone else has to key in data.

Jones echoes this observation. He says that younger officers who have greater familiarity with computers are starting to question the policies and manual procedures that seem outdated. As they rise to fill decision-making roles in their agencies, automation will become more valued.