New technology to make criminal investigations easier.
New technology to improve communication for cops


10/5/07
By Courtney Jones

New technology is changing the face of law enforcement. Months ago the Grand Junction Police Department applied for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Grant on behalf of the Mesa County Meth Task Force. It is a federal grant from the US Department of Justice. On Monday night the Grand Junction City Council accepted the $449,777 in grant funding.

Money from this grant will fund a couple of new programs and additions to Mesa County, including one to purchase, operate and coordinate an intelligence and data-sharing system. Police administrators have been talking about becoming involved with a program like this for some time and have now selected one called Coplink.

"Here in Grand Junction we will host the node of that Coplink system for all the western half of Colorado. So, our node will allow any agency to point their data at us. Their information will come to us over a secure internet connection and then we will connect to the statewide infrastructure and by virtue of our node give connectivity to the system." GJPD Deputy Chief, Troy Smith explains.

Coplink will allow officer to be in touch more quickly and easily with colleagues across the state. It will also give them faster access to information and evidence.

"This product also has a variety of very robust analytical tools that allow investigators to very quickly sift through partial information that we frequently get from witnesses during the course of the commission of a crime." Smith also explains that "grand junction police officers will be able to see arrest reports and narrative reports from the Durango pd, the Denver pd the aurora police department. It's an incredible tool for law enforcement."

So far all agencies in Jefferson County are already using the Coplink system. Smith says he hopes to see Mesa County go online with the system by the first quarter of 2008.