Mesa Moving Forward With Anti-Crime Project
The City of Mesa, AZ, wants to launch a technology-based initiative to reduce crimes linked to illegal aliens, according to police officials. The officials said the project would potentially involve hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire such equipment as portable digital fingerprint scanners, license-plate reading cameras, and remote cameras.
Additionally, data-mining software would enable cross-searches within several federal, state, and local law enforcement databases.
City leaders said federal agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms would be assigned to work with local police officers to solve crimes, swap data, and enhance communications with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Such a move could help uncover illegal aliens who had been deported or arrested previously.
The city is also mulling the creation of red-curb zones to indicate places where parking a vehicle is prohibited.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) from The Associated Press (01/12/07).