Orange County agencies share databases

Law enforcement and justice officials in Orange County, Calif., have started to integrate various databases to improve information sharing in a $1.6 million project that started earlier this year.

The first phase of the project was recently completed and linked records management systems from five police departments and the county Superior Court’s citation database. The second phase will link databases from the remaining participating police and justice agencies, such as the probation department and the district attorney’s office, by the end of 2006.

The agencies are using software called CopLink that can analyze large volumes of information to find trends and leads. Tucson, Ariz.-based Knowledge Computing, which developed the software, is a prime contractor on the Orange County Integrated Law and Justice Project. Unisys is providing the hardware and professional services for the project. Deloitte Consulting is providing program management and procurement advisory services to the project.

“With CopLink, law enforcement agencies across Orange County are able to continuously share, analyze and act on information that contributes to making well-informed decisions on how to deploy resources to prevent, prepare for and respond to crime and terrorism,” Newport Beach Police Chief Bob McDonell, who heads the project’s steering committee, said in a prepared statement.

“It’s a powerful tool that instantly puts significant information at the fingertips of our investigators that would otherwise be next to impossible to assemble or analyze, and that will help solve and thwart illegal activity across Orange County,” he added.

Knowledge Computing won the $1.6 million contract earlier this year from a field of nine bidders. A Homeland Security Department grant is funding the initiative.