A new crime data intranet that could enhance information sharing among local police proposed by chief
By P.J. D’Annunzio Staff Writer, Kennetttimes.com
New Garden police are pitching a plan to share data among local police departments, even between in-car computers.
NEW GARDEN — Police departments across the region are readying themselves to implement the next generation of crime fighting tools and a potential addition to their arsenal is a new information-sharing system devised by township Police Chief Gerald Simpson.
Pending certain improvements with the New Garden police server system, Simpson seeks to create an interdepartmental intranet hosted by New Garden and linked to police departments including Oxford, West Grove, Kennett Square Borough, Kennett Township, and East Marlborough.
During his technology briefing on Monday night, Simpson introduced his idea to the New Garden Township Board of Supervisors.
“This [network] will allow for the police departments in this area, in this region, to be able to share information immediately,” Simpson said, “In this region because there are a lot of municipal police departments, a lot of times information sharing is not very fluid, it may happen after the fact; a couple hours, a couple days…this will allow police departments individually to access this platform and post information, almost like a blog or social networking site.”
The site, accessed solely by law enforcement officers, would have specific areas where information warranting different levels of attention would be designated by priority level: high, low, or general information. The network would also have the capability to be accessed from individual police cruisers, thus turning each car into a mobile office.
“We’ve had a series of precious metal thefts around the area,” Simpson said, “If we get a photograph or information about that we could post it on the site and somebody in Oxford who comes into their shift will be able to log onto the site, look at it, and say ‘hey I recognize that car,’ and maybe that will bring them closer to closing the case. That’s ultimately what it’s designed to do.”
But creating an intranet such as the one proposed wouldn’t be cheap, as Simpson freely stated to the board. The total cost for the implementation of the system, including the construction of the network, air card service provided by Sprint, expansion of licensing agreements with the record management system, and upgraded laptops would be approximately $34,440.
In order to foot the cost Simpson recommended that the department defer one of two pending purchases of replacements police cars for two cruisers currently in service, the surplus funds resulting from a single purchase coming to approximately $26,000.
“I will make do with what I have in that regard,” Simpson said. “I’m more concerned with the data than I am with the car. I have other options with the car.”
The rest of the $34,000 sum would be met with $4,000 redirected from the department’s building maintenance fund and an amount from the asset seizures fund.
There would also be a buy-in cost of $3200 for police departments wanting inclusion into the network, along with fees for the recurring cost of the air cards. The project is dependent upon all interested departments pitching in, the idea being that no one department is overburdened with operating costs.
The proposal was received positively by the board, who commended Simpson on the ingenuity displayed in the creation of the networking concept.
“Chief, I believe speak for the entire board when I say we’ve been very impressed with the professionalism and business approach you’ve taken to running the department,” Board member Bob Norris said
The motion to reorganize the distribution of New Garden police funds for the purpose of creating the intranet system was carried unanimously by the board. The future of the project remains contingent upon the involvement of the regional departments during the next phase of development.
