The Business Press, Ontario, Calif., Inland Empire Focus Column
December 23, 2002 6:22pm
Dec. 23--Had Ontario Police Corporal James Renstrom been unable to scan fingerprints with a new wireless device, the man he stopped for a minor traffic violation in July might have ended up booked in the county jail in connection with another man's arrest warrant.
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"He could have sat in jail a few days," Renstrom said. "The guy could have lost thousands of dollars, if not his job."
"I cleared him within minutes right in the field."
A person fraudulently presented the driver's name and date of birth when arrested by officers, who fingerprinted the identify thief and entered the prints into a central database.
Renstrom first entered the driver's name in his patrol car computer.
"A warrant popped up," he said. He then ran the prints of the driver through the handheld wireless system. The computer discovered the driver's true name and date of birth.
Neither of the individuals' names was available. The alleged traffic violator was released without a citation. Without a true identity to match against the fingerprints in the central data base, Renstrom did not pursue an identity theft investigation against the previously arrested individual.
Officers use the wireless device, called an Identification Based Information System, or IBIS, primarily to verify an individual's identity, Renstrom said. Officers are not required by law to ask permission to run someone's fingerprints through IBIS. However, Ontario officers ask anyway, advising that the detainee's personal data will not be saved.
Police frequently arrest innocent victims of stolen identity, Renstrom said. "And there's no real recourse for victims."
"I'm surprised it's taken this long to get this type of technology going," Renstrom said.
Wireless technology took about 18 years to infiltrate the ranks of law enforcement, said Mike Van Winkle, information officer for the California Department of Justice.
Police departments in Palo Alto, Atherton, Beverly Hills and other wealthy communities began installing wireless computers in squad cars during the 1980s. Computer manufacturers began to partner with law enforcement to fight crime, Van Winkle said.
The Justice Department maintains databases of criminals' histories, fugitives, stolen property and other information. The information can be accessed by police in each of California's 58 counties.
Police and sheriffs' departments throughout the Inland Empire are deploying technology to save time and money and thwart criminals.
Riverside police use digital voice recorders. Some Riverside County deputies use computers in their patrol cars. At least 10 Inland Empire police departments and both counties use software that maps concentrations of criminal activity developed by Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. in Redlands.
Ontario police share four wireless, iron-sized fingerprint scanners that soon will be used by seven other local agencies. The Ontario department will use 25 scanners within a year. New devices will be smaller and weigh about a pound.
Law enforcement at the highest state agencies is adapting technology.
Justice Department officials this year launched Cal-Photo in the Criminal Identification Bureau. Cal-Photo links the mug shot databases of individual counties with the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Justice Department's sex offenders' database.
"It specifically allows law enforcement to access booking photos and Department of Motor Vehicles photos using a browser," said Rebecca Mills, manager of the Cal-Photo System, integration program. "Before, agencies had to call each other" to find a needed mug shot.
Fresno, San Diego, Orange and Ventura counties are linked through Cal-Photo. The four databases hold a total of 1.5 million photos, Mills said. Los Angeles and Sacramento counties are expected to sign on by the end of January, adding another 3 million mug shots to the system.
Fifteen years ago, laser lights that help investigators find evidence crimes scenes didn't exist, said Joseph Polski, chief operating officer of the International Association for Identification. Neither did digital photography, nor a computerized ballistics comparison system, a program subsidized by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The association, based in Minnesota, has 5,400 members worldwide and offers training and certificates in various aspects of crime scene investigation.
Topping the list of latest crime-fighting technologies, however, is the identification based information system, or IBIS, wireless device used by Ontario police and developed by Identix Inc. based in Minnesota.
"It's still pretty new," Polski said. "[Identix] started out doing fingerprints and now they're doing biometrics."
The wireless fingerprint scanner also photographs the detainee. Identix is a publicly held company specializing in biometric security technology. Ontario is partnering with Cogent Systems and AT&T to provide wireless technology for the scanners.
The IBIS devices wirelessly cross reference fingerprints, name and date of birth with information in Ontario's database of people arrested and fingerprinted in the Ontario and Pomona area.
Ontario police announced in October they had entered a $1.5 million, 12-month contract with the biometric security company to buy 40 IBIS wireless devices. The department plans to share about 15 of the scanners with police departments in Redlands, Rialto, Chino, Pomona, Upland, Fontana and Montclair for the duration of the one-year contract.
The October contract was the third installment of a federally funded pilot project Identix initiated with Ontario, Redlands, and Hennepin County, Minn., in 1999.
Most database searches with IBIS take about three minutes.
The California State Attorney General's office had issued the order in the aftermath of the 1998 police shooting of 19-year-old Tyisha Miller in Riverside: Riverside police officers must use digital voice recorders when stopping people for possible violations, and must begin using digital video cameras by March 2003, Police Sgt. Andy Flores said.
The Riverside Police Department bought 250 digital voice recorders that officers carry in leather holsters. Officers use the voice recorders when they question an individual, protecting both police and citizens, Flores said.
"We had a lot of false complaints [of police abuse]," Flores said. "Now it's all on the record and a lot of the complaints have gone away."
In compliance with the attorney general's order, police will use 10 digital video cameras beginning in March and employ 35 digital cameras by summer.
The department began pursuing high-tech initiatives about five years ago when fiber optics lines connected police facilities with an Internet network, Flores said.
The department provided 240 laptop computers for use in patrol cars. The laptops store law criminal code information and connect with dispatchers through police radio signals.
"We give them a gun and a laptop," Flores said, and officers are responsible for keeping their computers in good working order.
Environmental Systems Research Institute, or ESRI, in Redlands hopes to cash in on the growing use of digital technology in law enforcement.
Public safety agencies, including the federal Homeland Security agency, comprise "one of our fastest growing markets," said Karl Johnson, business partner manager at ESRI.
When testing in Ontario is complete, Identix plans to put IBIS "into every police car with every officer," said Damon Wright, director of Identix investor relations. Sales of other Identix products to law enforcement comprise 30 percent to 40 percent of gross revenues, he said.
"The bottom line is money," said Ann Punter, Ontario evidence property supervisor. If the department had to buy the wireless fingerprint scanner and other technology without grant money, "we wouldn't have it," she said.
About a year ago, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department applied for a federal grant to buy 175 wireless computers for patrol cars which will cost $1 million to $1.3 million, Sheriff's Lt. Steve Hill said.
Palomar Display Products in Carlsbad manufactures the computers, he said.
The California Department of Justice paid $500,000 for hardware to roll out the Cal-Photo program.
"We kind of took it out of hide," said Gary Cooper, chief of the Criminal Bureau of Identification.
"It was something law enforcement really wanted."
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© 2002, The Business Press, Ontario, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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