Images Of Any Address Available To Minnesota County
Police officers and other employees of public agencies in Dakota County, Minn., have the ability to view high-resolution photographic images of any property or address in the county.P> The software system, which is also used by a couple of other Minnesota counties, provides a 360-degree, three-dimensional view of the properties, making it an invaluable tool not just for law enforcement officers, but for homeland security managers, 911 dispatchers, and fire chiefs. Police officers can view the images in their squad cars. P>”It’s a good tool for planning operations, anything from drug warrants to school emergency shootings to hazardous materials investigations, reconstruction of crime scenes or traffic crashes,” says Randy Knippel, manager of the Dakota County office of Geographic Information Systems. P>One former police chief says the technology can be useful when planning an assault of a home with a barricaded suspect inside. As of last year, 125 counties across the United States used the imaging system.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN) (09/03/05) P. 8B; Bonner, Brian