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New crime reports could make county safer

Enhanced system gets records into hands of officers in real time.

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By Doug Page, Staff Writer Updated 8:19 PM Saturday, January 28, 2012

DAYTON — Patrol officers in 24 Montgomery County localities now have comprehensive crime information in real time that could help them protect residents better, thanks to expanded technology, law enforcement officials said.

“It increases the efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement,” said Joe Spitler, the county’s director of Criminal Justice and Data Acquisition.

The system — known as JusticeWeb — also is used by Child Protective Services as an oversight tool of foster parents and open abuse cases.

Protective services gets daily reports of police dispatched to addresses where the agency has foster parents or open cases.

“A lot of times in the past, CPS didn’t know police had been dispatched. And officers had no records of open cases when they got to the door,” said Spitler, who has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience.

The Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, rather than having to go through jail records by hand, now gets a daily report of those arrested that lists whether they are wanted on other charges by prosecutors.

When asked if the enhanced JusticeWeb would make the public safer, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl responded, “Absolutely.”

“We know that those who commit crimes don’t honor jurisdictional lines,” Biehl said. “When I drive home every night, I pass through Riverside to get my Dayton home. Riverside and Dayton police need to know what each other is doing.

“Just as my neighbors want to know what crimes are being committed in our neighborhood, part of which is in Riverside as well as Dayton.”

Biehl sees the enhanced technology as a necessary means to an end. His department has shrunk from around 380 officers last year to around 330 to start this year. “This allows us to answer the public’s calls with fewer officers in a efficient and more effective manner,” he said.

JusticeWeb — with upgrades funded through $144,000 federal grant — tracks incarcerations, warrants, dispatches, traffic stops, calls for assistance, arrests, field interrogations and other information. So when an officer makes a traffic stop in downtown Dayton, she can check all the driver’s interactions with police throughout the county as far back as 10 years.

All that is needed for an officer to access the enhanced website is a WiFi connection or a smartphone. Biehl said the city is toying with the idea of getting tablet computers for officers to fully utilize the new capabilities.

“It’s incredibly valuable. It puts the information in the hands of officers when they are on the street,” said Englewood Sgt. Mike Lang, pointing to a 2011 bank robbery as an example.

After robbing a bank, the thief walked to a nearby restaurant. While on the scene, Englewood officers were alerted to a problem at the restaurant. Once there, Lang was able to access the JusticeWeb on his smartphone, calling up photos of the suspect to immediately compare to the bank’s surveillance video. Within minutes, Lang had the suspect in cuffs.

“Ten years ago, we’d have had to go to the station, print out the picture, take it to the bank and compare it to the video,” Lang said. In this case, the suspect was in handcuffs within minutes rather then hours, and officers were back on patrol.

When the Dayton police tested the new upgrades last year, they put in a name they knew would be in the system. “Within seconds, we had 18 contacts with police throughout the county over the past 10 years for this person, all of which would have been valuable for a patrol officer,” Chief Biehl said.

The goal of JusticeWeb is to provide information sharing at little or no cost to departments through the use of grants.

“We look for ways to make that happen,” Spitler said.

This year, his department has budgeted $257,000 for JusticeWeb. The department has contracts totaling $222,000 for agencies outside the county — Greene County and Butler County probation departments, for instance — to access the data. That leaves a shortfall of roughly $35,000.

JusticeWeb currently serves 240 local, state and federal agencies in Ohio and Indiana.

Only Clay Twp., German Twp., the village of Phillipsburg and Five Rivers MetroParks have not signed on for updated JusticeWeb. Spitler said all four were reviewing the plan.

“I’m more than willing to consider it,” Clay Twp. Police Chief Dan Perkins said, “but I want to know what it’s going to cost me 10 years from now.”

The standard memorandum of understanding from the county states that the “services are to be currently provided free of charge. Any future fee structure will be discussed ... prior to implementation.”

That bothers German Twp. Police Chief W.L. Wilcox. “My No. 1 concern is that it won’t cost me anything. There is going to be some costs somewhere down the line. I just can’t take on any more obligations just now when I’m looking at my nickels and dimes.”

Both Perkins and Wilcox said they are still considering the plan.

Spitler said when the JusticeWeb was first launch in 2005, it started with the courts and jail. “It was a team effort to grow it. We brought in all the stakeholders and had everybody’s input. We started with everyone’s backing from the beginning. I think it turned out exceptionally well.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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