Lapd Hopes To Add High-Tech Partner To Force
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Assistant Chief George Gascon wants to provide police officers with the COPLINK computer program. The program links into various police databases to find connections between pieces of information. “This technology can connect the dots in crimes like never before, and it will save lives,” Gascon says.
Currently, the LAPD has 20 databases that must be accessed through different terminals, and some cannot be searched by phrases or keywords.
Computer-assisted policing programs are part of law enforcement’s drive to use technology to make up for lack of staff, and COPLINK makes use of data-mining algorithms to make connections far faster than a human can.
Over 100 agencies already use it; similar systems include Holmes II and Watson.
COPLINK creators Hsinchun Chen and the Tucson police department used a grant from the National Institutes of Justice to turn academic research into a practical application. Gascon wants to add data from other Los Angeles County law enforcement databases.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Los Angeles Times (01/02/04) P. B2; Winton, Richard; Blankstein, Andrew.
