BLACKBERRYS FRONT AND CENTRE IN FIGHT AGAINST CRIME

Sydney - Police in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality have become
the first in Canada to use BlackBerrys in the fight against crime.

Listening to endorsements from front-line officers at a press
conference Wednesday to unveil the OnPatrol program, other police
forces across the country may also want to join the digital age.

Drug squad constable Steve Nagy saw the wireless hand-held BlackBerrys
as a big advantage in stakeouts or drug-house takedowns because they
allow police to communicate with each other, headquarters or even the
Canadian Police Information Centre in Ottawa without going out over
scanners that can be overheard by the public or criminals.

"There's nothing in Scannerland, as they say," said Nagy, who was
among the first 50 officers in the Cape Breton Regional Police Service
to be armed with a BlackBerry.

"In all the drug raids we go on, you always see a scanner."

BlackBerrys give users access to wireless hand-held e-mail, cellphone
service, paging and the Internet.

Police on regular patrol can use BlackBerrys for everyday queries
about people or vehicles without returning to their cars or waiting
for their turn to get a reply from a dispatch operator who may be
handling several requests, said Sgt. Tom Ripley.

"I can do my own queries," he said. "It's instantaneous."

Ripley said as a police crisis negotiator, he also doesn't want
certain information going out over the airwaves where people with
scanners can hear him.

BlackBerrys can also be linked to a GPS system which will indicate
where a police officer is at all times, a feature that appealed to
Const. Erin Donovan.

"It's a great feature to have just in the event that if one of us does
go missing they can know exactly where we are," she said. "They can
locate us right away."

The OnPatrol program is available to police forces across Atlantic
Canada now that a secure server has been installed at the headquarters
of the Cape Breton Regional Police in Sydney, said John Taker, of the
service provider, Aliant, and its information technology company, xwave.

He can see a day when many police forces across Canada will use the
OnPatrol program, perhaps in addition to mobile data terminals in
patrol cars, if the price is right.

"It's quite possible we could see this on every police officer's
belt."

Chief Edgar MacLeod, who started work at a time when police call boxes
were still installed on Charlotte Street in Sydney, said it was a
proud day for his force.

Newspapers, television and radio stations across Canada will also lose
their source for breaking police stores as scanners are replaced by
digital technology like BlackBerrys.

Bryan Cantley, of the Canadian Newspaper Association, said it will be
following the matter closely.

"No one can argue against effective crime fighting tools," he said.
"But if it becomes a way for the police to deny the media access to
events unfolding that are the public's right to know about, then this
should be a concern for all of us, including the public."

Director of technology Bobby McNeil said the regional municipality
paid $99 for each of the 100 Blackberrys it has ordered so far and
will pay its service provider $54 a month for each user.

It's a cheap option compared to the cost of equipping police cars with
laptop computers, which was another option that had been considered,
he said.