EP Police cruisers linked

EAST PALESTINE — City police have a new tool to better communicate with law enforcement agencies through a grant from a state anti-terrorism program. The department’s copies of iLincs computer software are now live. The software, which is loaded in laptop computers in the department’s cruisers, allows officers to communicate with other law enforcement agencies across the state, provided that those agencies also use the program. Police Sgt. Kevin Dickey noted the county sheriff’s office is preparing to implement its copies of the software, and members of the East Liverpool, Columbiana and St. Clair Township police departments and the county Drug Task Force have looked at the program as well. “It was designed by a former policeman, and you can tell because it’s user-friendly,” Dickey commented. The program allows officers to access the LEADS police database from their cruisers, providing them with the driver’s license information of anyone they are seeking, including photographs from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. It also has a real-time, secure form of instant messaging that connects officers with other on-duty law enforcement officials from across Ohio. “This gives us the ability to speak with anybody on the system, not just in the department, but any agency on the system in the state,” Dickey explained. Currently the program is available only to Ohio law enforcement agencies. While the program will not eliminate the need for police radios, Dickey said it will be a substantial help to officers and dispatchers during times of heavy radio traffic. For instance, during the recent snowstorms, police were trying to respond to calls while dispatchers were fielding a large amount of radio traffic on weather and road conditions, resulting in emergency radio frequencies being crowded and making it hard for officers and dispatchers to follow radio traffic relevant to their jurisdiction. Ohio Homeland Security’s Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program provided all the funding necessary for any interested law enforcement agency in the state to make use of the computer program through the end of 2011 and possibly 2012 at no cost to the departments that use it. Law enforcement agencies using the software must provide their own laptops and telephone air cards. Dickey noted the department had laptop computers left over from the days it used Packet Cluster, a communication program similar to iLincs. “Unfortunately, that was a casualty of the budget cuts,” he noted, and the department stopped using Packet Cluster around five years ago. He noted the program is also a useful tool for communicating between cruisers and the station during times when police need to maintain dispatch silence. mschomer@mojonews.com