Wash. police gets grant for new database system

By Stacey Mulick
The News Tribune

TACOMA, Wash. — A year from now, Tacoma and Lakewood police officers will get automatic alerts in their patrol cars when violent crime spikes in their areas.

They'll also be able to tap into a computer database and look up specific crimes over a specific time period in a specific part of their city.

The idea is to enhance the police departments' abilities to spot crime trends and get timely information to patrol officers.

"It's very exciting for us," said Tacoma police Capt. Mike Miller, who is overseeing implementation of a $385,000 grant that will fund the new system. The grant from the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance was awarded last year.

What the grant buys: A computer-based early warning system that recognizes sharp increases in certain types of crimes in a geographic area. When a crime spike is detected, the program sends an alert to police officers.

"This system will track whatever crimes we tell it to track," Miller said.

An additional feature: Officers will be able to query the computer database for information about a specific crime in a specific place to see whether a trend is developing.

For example, an officer who just took a home burglary report could query the system to see whether other burglaries have been reported in the neighborhood in recent days and weeks.

"Right now, they have no ability in the field to pull up maps with dots for where crime is occurring," Miller said.

Following Philadelphia: The computer program was developed by Avencia, a Philadelphia-based software development company, with the help of the Philadelphia Police Department.

The program, which has been used there since June 2005, uses a statistical algorithm to compare current crime to historical crime across the city.

"We are going to be the second place in the country that is going to have a system of this nature," Miller said.

Details to come: Most of the particulars about how the system will work will be decided in the coming months. That includes what the software will recognize as a spike in a particular crime and which crimes will be searched for.

No other money: The grant will cover implementing the system and training on the new software, Miller said.

Timeline: The system has three phases of study and implementation. Miller hopes to have it running by the fall but said it could be the end of the year.

Copyright 2008 The News Tribune