California's ARJIS Deploys COPLINK® To Support Crime Fighting Efforts Between San Diego, Tucson and Phoenix

02/20/04
TUCSON, AZ and SAN DIEGO

Knowledge Computing Corporation announced today that its critically acclaimed crime fighting solution COPLINK will be deployed to support a major crime fighting initiative between California's Automated Regional Justice Information System Network (ARJIS) and police departments in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. The initiative will support and enhance the ability to solve crimes faster that occur within local member jurisdictions as well as those that take place across multiple jurisdictions and state lines.

"This is a model approach for how local, regional and state law enforcement agencies across the country can work together to solve crimes and improve community safety," said Bob Griffin, CEO of Knowledge Computing Corporation. "Unlike other approaches, the unique architecture of COPLINK respects the autonomy of each jurisdiction and addresses legitimate privacy and legal concerns that impact the effectiveness of law enforcement information sharing initiatives."

Established in 1980 ARJIS is a criminal justice enterprise network utilized by 50 local, state and federal agencies in the San Diego region. The ARJISNet secure intranet only contains public law enforcement data such as the region's crime cases, arrests, citations, field interviews, traffic accidents, fraudulent documents, photographs, gang information and stolen property.

With COPLINK, members of ARJIS and their respective law enforcement agencies can now intelligently search this data to find hidden relationships between suspects or criminal activity and identify qualified leads when there are none. One search using known facts from an ongoing criminal investigation can produce qualified leads in minutes -- a process that prior to COPLINK, often took days or weeks. Through sophisticated analytics, COPLINK builds 'institutional memory', reduces knowledge gaps, and prevents criminals from falling through the cracks.

Pam Scanlon, Executive Director of ARJIS, stated, "COPLINK will help our law enforcement agencies generate investigative leads, get violent and repeat offenders off the street faster and reduce the time between the offence and the apprehension of the criminal."

The COPLINK initiative with ARJIS also establishes law enforcement information sharing linkages with Police Departments in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. The crime corridor between California and Arizona is one of the most active and fluid in the country, particularly when it comes to drug trafficking. COPLINK is a powerful tool for combating the increasing trend of crimes that occur across multiple jurisdictions. Like ARJIS, the Phoenix and Tucson Police Departments will only be contributing public law enforcement data to the regional system.

When COPLINK is used to create regional information sharing networks, each participating agency has real-time control over what data is shared, with whom and when. In addition, data continues to reside and be updated at its existing source. These safeguards help protect the integrity of the data and sensitive information while allowing for the creation of ad hoc regional task forces to address specific criminal activity.

COPLINK also creates a detailed audit trail for every search conducted. This serves two purposes. Officers seeking to question or obtain a warrant on suspects identified through COPLINK are able to clearly demonstrate with hard facts how that person fits the criminal profile and how others were excluded. The System Administrator is also able to monitor use for audit purposes to identify any abuse that would result in suspension of a user's access privileges under the privacy and use protocols established by each agency in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

"Tucson has been using COPLINK for five years and it's proven to be an incredibly effective investigative tool in helping put murderers, repeat sex offenders and drug traffickers behind bars," said Detective Tim Petersen, of the Tucson Police Department. "We've also been able to achieve a 7:1 labor savings which helps Tucson keep more feet on the streets."

Designed by current and former law enforcement officials, COPLINK is tactically sophisticated yet user-friendly. Even the most non-technical law enforcement officials can master it in less than a day. COPLINK is deployed in over 100 jurisdictions nationwide from Boston to Los Angeles to support police officers in fighting crime and improving community safety.

About ARJIS
The Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) is a criminal justice enterprise network utilized by 50 local, state and federal agencies in the San Diego region. There are over 10,000 pre-screened, authorized users generating over 35,000 logged transactions daily. For more information:
http://www.arjis.org.

About Knowledge Computing Corporation

Knowledge Computing Corporation provides technology-based crime fighting solutions to leading edge law enforcement agencies nationwide. Its critically-acclaimed product, COPLINK®, in use since 1998, is based on knowledge management technology first prototyped by top-ranked researchers in the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson through a grant by the National Institute of Justice. The technologies developed at Knowledge Computing Corporation have been tested and proven by law enforcement agencies around the country. For more information: www.knowledgecc.com or www.coplink.net.