Area law enforcement ramps up for wireless communication system

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February 2, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Mon Feb 02, 2009, 08:15 AM CST

Area law enforcement

By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

Area law-enforcement agencies will soon launch a wireless information-sharing system.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department received a federal grant for about $846,000 a little more than a year ago to start what is being called the Cornerstone Regional Justice Information System, which will link departments in Jasper and Newton counties.

When the system is implemented, participating agencies will be able to compile an areawide database of information that officers can access via computers in their vehicles.

An officer pulling over a person for speeding in one jurisdiction, for example, could tell via computer if the person is under investigation for a crime in another jurisdiction or has any outstanding warrants. Photographs of that person also could be available eventually.

“We would love to have this spread out across the whole corner of (Southwest Missouri),” said Lt. Matt Stoller of the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department. For now, plans call for the sheriff’s departments in Jasper and Newton counties, along with municipal police forces such as Joplin, Carthage, Webb City, Carl Junction, Carterville and JasCo Metropolitan to begin to interface with one another in March, Stoller said.

Some of the system will be paid for with grant money offered to area municipal and village police by the Sheriff’s Department using money from the county’s quarter-cent sales tax for law enforcement. When voters approved that tax in 2005, one of the promises from the Sheriff’s Department was that a portion of the revenue would be set aside for grants for which local departments could apply.

The Sheriff’s Department awarded grants totaling more than $92,570 to seven agencies in 2007, for purposes ranging from laptop computers to vehicles and office equipment.

Last year, it awarded more than $165,000 in grants to 10 agencies for computers, software, communication towers, a bulletproof vest and a vehicle. This year’s round of grants is to focus on “the expansion of information sharing and voice and data interoperability,” according to the grant application.

Sheriff Archie Dunn said about $165,000 in grant money will be available this year, and the program explicitly requires the departments to apply for grants for technology.

Dunn said the federal grant was not conditioned on the use of the local grants to help implement the Cornerstone program.

Stoller said this year’s grants are focused on technology to “get all the departments on the same playing field.”

Area police chiefs said they are fine with the grant arrangement.

“If you don’t like the guidelines, you don’t have to apply for the grant,” said Tommy Kitch, chief of the Duquesne Police Department.

He called the countywide reporting system “a step forward” for area law enforcement, and said his department is going to apply for a grant of between $5,000 and $7,000 for a new computer system and a computerized records-management system.

Kitch said the new technology is “definitely” one of his department’s priorities, not just because of interfacing with Cornerstone, but also because it provides his department with technological upgrades.

“I can’t see any downsides to it,” he said.

The Carterville Police Department has applied for a grant of almost $15,720, said Chief William Cline. Carterville’s grant money would help it purchase several new laptops, wireless Internet cards for the laptops, an upgrade in its Internet service and a new computer at its station.

Cline estimated that Carterville has a database of between 700 and 800 offenders or suspects. Jasper County’s alone, he said, has about 10,000.

“It’s going to dramatically increase our database,” he said.

Cline acknowledged that the department balked at the idea of limiting the use of local grant money to technology.

“We weren’t real thrilled last year,” he said.

But he added that his department has warmed to the program since learning more about what it can do and how it could benefit the local force.

“This year, they (the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department) proved us wrong,” he said.

Carl Francis, chief of the Webb City Police Department, said his department will be applying for grant money for software and another computer server.

“It will benefit us in several ways other than Cornerstone,” he said.

Interfacing with the Jasper County department, he said, also would give Webb City a platform to do computer-assisted dispatching with its officers. For example, if officers were responding to a report of a burglary at a house, CAD would allow officers to see via laptops in their vehicles if that house had a history of burglaries or thefts, Francis said. At some point, officers might even be able to call up a layout of the house.

He also said that if his department cannot increase its number of officers, time-saving technology allows his personnel to do more work more efficiently.

“Technology right now is certainly a priority in our budget process,” he said.

Joplin police Chief Lane Roberts could not be reached for comment for this story.

Delmar Haase, Carl Junction police chief, said his department is weighing whether to seek a grant this year. The department has applied for grants for things such as weapons, gear, ammunition and radar guns, and has been denied.

Haase said he is still deciding whether to seek a grant because he is unsure if he wants the computerized records-management system recommended by the county or if he wants to retain the one his department already uses. He said he does not have any problems with the application procedure.

“If this Cornerstone project gets off the ground, it’s going to be an advantage to everyone,” Haase said.

Deadline

The deadline for local agencies to apply for money from the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department’s law-enforcement sales tax fund is Feb. 15.