Police Chief: Technology Changes in Store for ’07

The La Crosse, Wis., Police Department is set to begin using a number of new technologies, including an automated reporting system called TraCS or Traffic and Criminal Software. The system will be installed in squad cars and will allow officers to take pertinent information by swiping the bar code on driver’s licenses.

According to La Crosse Police Chief Ed Kondracki, officers will then be able to type in the pertinent information and print out a citation and other necessary documents in their squad cars.

The system will not only be more efficient and more accurate, but it will also work into the department’s effort to be certified in Incident Based Reporting by the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance.

Instead of keeping information on eight different types of crimes, the Incident Based Reporting system will track 46 different offenses–which should improve the quality of crime statistics and make better use of crime trend analysis, Kondracki said.

In addition to TraCS, the La Crosse Police Department is planning to use an interactive virtual training system that will allow officers to participate in national training sessions without leaving the city.

LCPD officers will also take part in training offered through the Internet Crimes Against Children Division, which will help them learn how to retrieve and recover evidence left on a computer hard drive or storage device such as a jump drive.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) from the La Crosse Tribune (WI); 12/30/06; Springer, Dan.