Police Agencies to Link Data

By Adam Folk, The Augusta Chronicle, Staff Writer
April 12, 2007

After six years, local law enforcement agencies announced Wednesday that they had secured federal funding for a new interlinked computer database to aid in identifying and apprehending criminal suspects.

The CSRA IntelliNET will join seven sheriffs and public safety departments in a program called COPLINK. It will allow them to quickly share data on arrests, the identification of subjects and other information currently limited to each department's computer system.

Representatives from each of the seven agencies - the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, Aiken Department of Public Safety, Richmond County Sheriff's Office, Burke County Sheriff's Office, Columbia County Sheriff's Office, Edgefield County Sheriff's Office and North Augusta Department of Public Safety - witnessed a demonstration of the program during a news conference at Augusta Marriott Hotel & Suites in downtown Augusta.

U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., praised the agencies for their "foresight and stick-to-itiveness" in working to acquire the U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant that will fund COPLINK. He said that by aiding everyday police work in the community, COPLINK will "help us all to deal with the not-so-day-to-day problem of international terrorism."

The program is expected to cost about $1.4 million, which is supplied by the Homeland Security Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program. The $34.6 million provided by the program will be divvied among more than 2,000 first responders across the nation and is designed to ensure that smaller jurisdictions, along with eligible metropolitan areas, have the equipment needed to meet their homeland security mission.

Area agencies frequently work with one another to apprehend suspects in the area, and Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength said the new program will allow them to speed up the process and fill in any gaps in their information, as long as the information inside the program is entered in a timely manner.

"It's going to be a great tool, but these types of things are only as good as the information put in them," Sheriff Strength said. "I don't think there will be a problem with any of these agencies keeping this information up in the computer."