The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Carthage, Jasper County

Discussion

January 31, 2008

Federal grant to help launch police data-sharing system

By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — A federal grant of nearly $850,000 will help launch a wireless, information-sharing system to serve law-enforcement agencies in three counties.

Police and sheriff department officials from throughout the region met Thursday at the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department offices near Carthage to discuss the system and to thank U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt for funding that is making the project possible.

After the session, Blunt sat inside a snow-covered sheriff’s car to get a demonstration of some of the technology that will be used in the system, called the Cornerstone Regional Justice Information System.

Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn noted that the grant is in addition to funding of nearly $700,000 for technology the Sheriff’s Department has received since 2001.

“That helped us get started, but this grant enables us to launch the Cornerstone project that’s been in the making for three or four years,” he said. “This will give us a decisive edge in fighting crime.”

Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said the grant will help add mobile data terminals to cars used by his department and will allow information-sharing among departments.

“It will give us what we need to work together to fight the crooks,” he said.

Blunt told the room filled with law-enforcement officers that he believes the federal government should support “projects like this, that are regional projects matched with local money.”

“You’re developing your own system rather than looking for a federal solution,” he said. “It puts you all, literally, on the same wavelength.”

Jasper County sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Merriman, who helped develop the system, said it will allow local law-enforcement agencies to contribute and share information, and will link with a state system that is being developed.

He said the computer software that will be used will allow agencies to contribute and use data, but maintain control of their own information.

Lane Roberts, Joplin police chief, said a similar system was in use in the Pacific Northwest, where he worked before moving to Joplin.

“It was very beneficial because it made so much more information available to law enforcement,” he said.

Merriman said the funding will allow the system to launch this summer, serving agencies including sheriff departments in Jasper, Newton and Lawrence counties, the Neosho Police Department, and at least a half-dozen police departments in Jasper County.

Merriman noted that the funding came from earmarks — appropriations added at the request of a specific lawmaker — but he defended earmarks that benefit law enforcement.

“Those aren’t pork; they have a positive impact on the well-being of communities,” he said. “He (Blunt) has been a champion for us.”

“These are the kinds of programs that we need to be encouraging,” Blunt said. “But the funding needs to go through the appropriations process and be totally transparent.”





Earmarks



U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt said the Republican caucus has approved a set of reforms in response to criticisms of some spending based on federal earmarks. In the region, he said, Highway 71 construction has been the largest recipient of spending from federal earmarks.

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