The information came from a high-tech dispatch system that let Constable Barry Harris and his partner know that the man behind the door had a history of violence and a shotgun. The constables stood aside as they knocked and watched the apartment door explode in front of them. Inside the house, the man held his wife hostage, but he later released her. After a lengthy standoff, he killed himself, but no one else was hurt during the incident.
"We haven't had any more moments as dramatic as that one, but I like to believe that it is partially because we are using our tools even better now," said Chris Kellet, a staff sergeant with the Edmonton Police Service.
The tool he is referring to is a UNIX-based computer-aided dispatch system designed and installed by Intergraph, based in Huntsville, Ala. The first-generation system used by Edmonton is linked to important databases throughout Canada, including the Canadian Police Information Center (CPIC) and the Canadian Firearms Registry. There is also a computerized map of Edmonton and the surrounding area that can be called up with a click of the mouse, revealing building footprints, hazardous materials locations, fire hydrants, power lines, rivers, lakes, railroad lines and closed streets. As a dispatcher closes off a street to trap an escaping suspect, the mapping system automatically updates the map in realtime based on the dispatcher's inputs and recommends routes around the closed streets for future emergency dispatches. However, it is the database linkages that have proved invaluable to cops in the field.
From CPIC, dispatchers and officers have access to wants, warrants and stolen vehicles. A quick name or address search can provide arrest history or recent local call history.
It is that local call history, as well as the Firearms Registry, that saved Harris' life. The officers already knew as they climbed the stairs that there had been a series of recent domestic disturbance calls to the address and that officers responding to a previous call were threatened by a gun-toting male occupant of the house. Today, that same kind of information is helping preempt some violent incidents before they occur.
"The ages-old approach to law enforcement has been: We came; we saw; we conquered. But today we are trying to teach our officers to think outside of the bubble, to say, 'We came; we saw; now what is the root cause of the problem here?'" said Kellet. "We are using the Intergraph system to help inform and facilitate our modern approach to community-oriented policing. We have learned that most problems we deal with are not something that you can just run over, turn the tap off and it stops. Instead, we identify the problem, find the root cause and deal with it at that level.
"In the past, there was little communication between officers, until a repeat problem became a major problem," Kellet continued. "Now, with Intergraph, that information can and is shared easily and automatically. When a call comes up and the responding officer sees it is the third call in a month, he knows that it is time to take action to eliminate the root cause of the problem."
"The system is helping us with investigating on-going criminal activity and with resolving problems that haven't reached criminal levels yet," added Constable Harris. "Saving lives isn't always about standing away from the door; sometimes it's about getting involved.
"For example, we had an on-going problem with a drug house, and we were having trouble getting authorization for phone taps," Harris continued. "The call history helped justify [the wire tap] and a surveillance team, and we broke that place. In other cases, maybe we can stop something before it happens. If there is a neighborhood dispute going on, and we have responded to several disturbance calls in the area, the call history will immediately show us the trend. In that instance, maybe we can bring in a neighborhood mediation team and resolve the dispute before someone loses their cool. In the past, with three different platoons working three different shifts, we might not have known anything until it involved a gun."
Harris and Kellet agree that in these types of incidents, where the officer is able to bring in a neighborhood mediation team, set up a watch group to curtail a given problem or maybe involve family or child counselors early on in the problem, the result is an end to calls for service to the address. Of course, like in Harris' experience, if the calls don't end, the information is still invaluable for future officer responses. About the only drawback to the system is that Edmonton was one of the first agencies to install it.
"We worked with Intergraph to design and build the first-generation of this system, and that meant a UNIX platform based on workstations. That cost us $5 million at the time, and the cost to expand this first-generation system is terribly prohibitive," explained Kellet. "If I want to replace or add a workstation, it is going to cost me $20,000, but Intergraph is now in its third generation of the system, based entirely on PCs and Windows technology; it offers scalability and open architecture. The Windows interface is quicker and easier to access and utilize, and adding a PC station to the system would only cost about $6,000.
"In terms of a tool, what we have is getting the job done; it is easy to train on, has saved lives and is supporting us in a new approach to law enforcement. But we are looking towards a full change out to Intergraph's third generation system around 1999. That will probably cost us about $1.5 million as opposed to the $5 million we spent originally. It will do everything we can do now, only better and faster."
Ray Dussault is a Sacramento, Calif.-based writer.
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