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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981 09-30 Police department hails new advisor: computer THE REVIEW VOLUME 20, NUMBER 21 Publication#328680 "tSingle Copy 30' Maplewood, Minnesota s,,_. -;>,9 WED., SEPT. 30, 1981 department al s . . < ,, • new advisor: computer ., e, I. 1 , 0 , a,; By JONATHON CLYDE GLASS sonnei," Cusick said. POSSE produces monthly management k Staff Writer Without the computer, the department reports on criminal activity. It also With the Sept. 18 installation of its first heads can make educated guesses about provides investigative support by iden- nhouse computer,the Maplewood Police the criminal patterns in the city, but of in similar elements in unsolved cases iPa tifying Department is transforming its record- cannot be certain they are correct, he and determining which cases have a ,. keeping system,replacing hand-compiled said.With more reliable information, the "high solvability factor," Cusick said. 1. statistical reports with computer prin- department can plan better to improve The department's two juvenile and two ` "' � s� • � touts which detail the exact time,location the efficiency of its patrol schedules and adult investigators can then concentrate and character of every police incident. other procedures. on those cases, he explained. The com- . ��;, ,13 The change is expected to have a "Traditionally police departments puter can even rank suspects in certain 0. • ' . significant impact on how the department collect a lot of information, but have a crimes by comparing the nature of the - makes use of its 32 patrol officers. very difficult time retrieving and crime with the stored data on the. ,� �, The computer system, known as analyzing it," Cusick noted. With the suspects' previous activities, he added. `, Minnesota POSSE (Police Operation instant retrievability of information '' Support System Elementary),will enable stored in the computer, the police Minnesota POSSE is expected to go into es the department to identify recurring dispatchers will be able to call on their full operation Nov.1,capping two years of patterns of criminal activity and schedule data base and advise officers in the street planning. The department has begun to more patrol officers for those areas and how to respond to certain situations, he train its dispatchers, clerical staff and times with the greatest criminal activity, continued. some managers—a total of 18 people—in according to Lt.Dennis Cusick. Using the the use of the computer. Eventually, the computer's daily summaries of all THE COMPUTER SYSTEM, a Texas department hopes to train all its officers SGT. BOB NELSON, who directs the Maplewood Police emergency and 10 non-emergency phone lines, and criminal and non-criminal requests for Instrument model with four pieces of in the subject, Cusick said. Throughout Department's radio communications,and Jayme Flaugher, monitoring the radio reports of neighboring police and fire police services. the department can hardware, is specifically designed for October, the programmers will feed the one of the department's five dispatchers, get ready to departments,the dispatchers will now be trained to handle a lyze the frequency and character of small to medium-sized police forces. It department's current data base into change shifts at the police station's communication center. the Minnesota POSSE computer system as well. a police activities according to the day of captures and indexes all the information POSSE's memory and continue to Besides handling nine radio channels, answering eight , ti week, time of day and geographic related to calls for service, offenses and practice operating the system, Cusick 1 ation, and adjust its patrols ac- incidents, arrests, juvenile contacts, noted. c dingly, he explained. suspicious people and vehicles, property Maplewood has acquired POSSE on a ;'With the constraints being put on the and evidence collected, and personnel five-year lease from the state at a total dget and our inability to add additional files, according to Cusick. It also im- cost of roughly$60,000, Cusick said. It is fficers,this allows us to identify areas of proves the department's access to the not yet certain whether the department eed and accordingly assign our per- state's records on drivers, vehicles and will be able to assume full ownership 1 criminal histories. when the lease expires, he noted.