Crime Fighting and Terrorism Prevention Initiative Goes Live in Orange County

by Sandy Smith
08/12/05

A new technology is playing a significant role in helping law enforcement in one of the most populous areas of the United States – Orange County, California – fight crime and thwart terrorism by allowing agencies across multiple jurisdictions to immediately share, analyze and act on information critical to ongoing investigations.

Knowledge Computing Corp. says Phase I of the Orange County Integrated Law and Justice (OCILJ) Project, powered by COPLINK, is fully operational. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant program.

"This initiative further demonstrates how proven, commercial off-the-shelf crime fighting and homeland security solutions like COPLINK can be deployed reliably, rapidly, cost effectively and less intrusively to dramatically improve our nation's safety today," said Robert Griffin, CEO of Knowledge Computing Corp..

In the first phase of the project, data was integrated from five police agency records management systems and the Orange County Superior Court's citation database. Phase II is underway and provides for the addition of all other police agencies in the county by the end of 2006 or sooner, with the timing only limited by the agencies' ability to provide the required access to their systems' data. Included in this program are other criminal justice agencies in Orange County, such as the Probation Department and the District Attorney's Office.

Since the OCILJ Project went live, officers in participating agencies have identified several suspects in active investigations that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. These leads are now being further developed and it is anticipated that some will lead to arrest warrants. Officers using the system have noted that the COPLINK technology is a powerful analytical tool.

COPLINK works by allowing vast quantities of structured and seemingly unrelated data, currently housed in various incompatible databases and records management systems (RMS), to be securely organized, consolidated and rapidly analyzed over a highly secure intranet-based platform.

One search using known or partial facts from an ongoing investigation can produce qualified leads that would otherwise be unapparent in seconds – a process that prior to COPLINK wasn't possible at all or often took days or weeks to accomplish. Through sophisticated analytics, COPLINK builds "institutional memory," reduces knowledge gaps and prevents criminals from falling through the cracks. For example, being able to immediately search for persons or vehicles based upon partial descriptions within minutes of a crime occurring is a huge advantage in reducing the time between offenses and the apprehension of criminals.

"With COPLINK, law enforcement agencies across Orange County are able to continuously share, analyze and act on information that contributes to making well-informed decisions on how to deploy resources to prevent, prepare for and respond to crime and terrorism," said Newport Beach Chief of Police Bob McDonell, chairman of the Steering Committee for the OCILJ Project. "It's a powerful tool that instantly puts significant information at the fingertips of our investigators that would otherwise be next to impossible to assemble or analyze, and that will help solve and thwart illegal activity across Orange County."