Policing in the 21st Century

CLEVELAND, July 28, 2010 - With today’s growing crime rate and technology growing even faster the Cleveland Police Department will not be left behind when it comes to technology. Since the appointment of Chief Mark Bradshaw in March 2009 he has made three major equipment upgrades for the department.

All the upgrades with a cost of more than $130,000 did not cost the City of Cleveland or its citizens. ” said Bradshaw. The upgrades were funded through federal grants and money seizures derived from criminal activities.

The Department has put three new police vehicles into service, two handheld ticket writers, and an (ALPR) Automatic License Plate Recognition system. The police vehicles were 100% funded through a grant written by Bradshaw in 2009. The ALPR was also obtained through a similar grant and the ticket writers were purchased with a combination of seizure money and municipal court funds.

The handheld ticket writers have not only improved efficiency and productivity, but officer safety as well, Bradshaw said. A majority of police officer deaths occur during traffic stops alongside the roadway due to officers being hit by inattentive or impaired motorists. This equipment will shorten the time an officer will be exposed to traffic while issuing a citation.

The chief also cited savings as another reason for the ticket writers. It costs the city approximately 20 cents per ticket if you figure in the cost of each hand written paper citation, versus the 2-4 cents per citation with the electronic printed version, this should save money in the long term, said Bradshaw.

There are several other advantages in addition to saving tax payer money, including a VIN plate scanning option, photographing drivers, audio recording the comments of the violator on a traffic stop, and checking local warrants just by swiping the driver license. All state and local violations are downloaded into the ticket writers and can be affixed to citation using the touch screen display.

Also, every contact that is made using the ticket writers is uploaded into the department’s court system as well as the (RMS) report management system. This will aid in the tracking of citations, violators, and mapping reports for administrative review, not to mention the easy to read citations. Up to 10% of citations are thrown out of court due to illegible handwriting or improperly written citations, said Bradshaw.

Another technological gizmo added to the department’s arsenal of crime fighting tools is the (ALPR) Automatic License Plate Recognition system. This is a huge breakthrough in law enforcement technology to ensure officer safety and productivity while maximizing the use of a patrol vehicle.

The ALPR reads license plates through a multi-camera system mounted on top of the vehicle then compares the readings instantly to a database of vehicles. The system has the ability to read 3,600 plates per minute either parked or moving. The system is also capable of reading a license plate on a vehicle traveling up to 180 MPH.

How it works is at the onset of an officers shift, the on-board computer in the patrol car downloads a list of vehicles from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) commonly called a “hot list.” It contains the license plate numbers of stolen vehicles, wanted vehicles, suspect vehicles, amber alerts, silver alerts, homeland security alerts and other vehicles that may be of interest to law enforcement.

As the police car proceeds down the road or in parking lots throughout the city during a normal duty shift, the system compares the license plate of every car it sees with its multi-camera system through the database. An auditable alarm will sound to alert the officer whenever the system discovers a plate that is on the “hot list.”

The identification of license plates on the “hot list” has often resulted in other enforcement opportunities such as drug trafficking, identity theft, and robbery, said Bradshaw.

Chief Bradshaw is researching the possibility of placing fixed cameras of this type at entry points to the city to alert officers that a wanted vehicle has entered the City of Cleveland.