WASHINGTON COUNTY TO GET HIGH-TECH GADGETS FOR FIGHT IN WAR ON DRUGS

Shades of Dick Tracy

The Washington County District Attorney's drug task force is getting
new tools to fight the war on drugs, thanks to a federal program that
uses advanced technology to combat the drug trade.

A recent grant from the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy to the drug task force will include more than $100,000 worth
of equipment and software, such as computers, forensic technology and
a pair of $20,000 night-vision binoculars that can be used during
raids or for surveillance of drug dealers.

District Attorney Steve Toprani said his office has received one
laptop computer and the binoculars, and is expecting new case
management system software, three more laptops with car mounts for
use in police vehicles, two desktop computers, 10 new software
licenses and a network server.

The package also includes installation, service contracts for two
years and training, along with state-of-the-art video and forensics
software. Mr. Toprani said he hopes to have the new equipment in use
by next month.

"This is the hottest product in law enforcement and we're getting it
here," said Mr. Toprani of the video editing and enhancement software.

According to the drug control police, most of the technology has been
used by the federal government or military and is being shared now
with local law enforcement agencies in an effort to transfer proven
law enforcement technologies to support counter drug missions on the
state and local level.

"This is military-grade," said Mr. Toprani of the equipment. "This is
what the [U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration] uses."

The drug control policy program will use Washington County as a test
bed for its Technology Transfer Program, which was expanded in recent
years to include a "high impact" element, in which a variety of
complementary technologies would be provided to support the needs of
multiple agencies.

According to ONDCP Deputy Press Secretary Stephen E. Schatz,
Washington County's drug task force was among the agencies chosen for
the grant because it supports the investigative needs of multiple
local agencies, along with "emerging drug issues" in the local region.

The drug task force includes 27 officers and detectives from police
departments throughout the county.

So far this year, the task force has made 26 arrests, compared to 19
in all of 2007, when the program fell under the supervision of former
District Attorney John C. Pettit.

Mr. Pettit often caught flak over the less-than-robust arrest rates
and sluggish performance of the task force, which had been criticized
by municipal leaders, who said they were doing their best to stem
local drug trafficking with little county assistance.

When he defeated Mr. Pettit and became district attorney this year,
Mr. Toprani said the task force would be one of his top priorities.
He expanded the force, raised the salaries of detectives and police
officers, and assigned a county-employed detective to oversee the
program full time.

The new records management system means the task force can share
information among police departments across the county and possibly
the state.

Using the county as a test bed will enable the federal government to
determine the effectiveness of this type of technology distribution
and its ability to enhance information sharing on a local and
statewide basis, Mr. Schatz said.

The technology will be used to complement a new computer system
recently installed in the district attorney's office that replaced
former 1990s-era computers, which didn't include Microsoft Windows
software.

"We've actually overhauled all the computers in our office," Mr.
Toprani said.

Although county officials have pledged to assist Mr. Toprani in
updating the task force as much as possible, the equipment and
technology being offered by the ONDCP would have been far out of reach.

"To get that equipment here is unfathomable from our budgeting
perspective," Mr. Toprani said. "This is very exciting for us."

The grant also will allow the task force to keep pace with the
always-evolving drug trade, Mr. Toprani said.

"It finally puts us ahead of the curve," he said.