LAPD Needs a Hand in Upgrading Technology

The Los Angeles Police Department is still struggling to upgrade its technological capabilities. That’s despite the fact that the City Council has approved more than $10 million for new technology for the force and Mayor Richard Riordan’s Alliance for Public Safety has used federal matching funds to donate $33 million more.

The LAPD’s problems range from patchwork automation to incompatible computers. Examples? The poor coordination of computer equipment means that officers and detectives must use paperwork on too many routine tasks. It also prevents the development of sophisticated crime databases that can be shared by officers at different stations. Patrol car computer technology is rudimentary at best, far below that of some other departments.

Riordan is now expressing disappointment--even though his clear emphasis has been increasing the LAPD ranks at the likely expense of other goals such as modernization. The problem figures to become an issue in the mayor’s race and a factor in Willie Williams’ efforts to remain chief of the LAPD. But the matter is of course important on its own. So too is the mayor’s call to consolidate technological improvements under a single office that would have a civilian director reporting to the chief.

The LAPD’s problems are not rare. L.A. County just hired an information and technology czar to coordinate the computer systems of various departments. Moreover, various federal agencies have served as preeminent examples of how to spend impressive sums of money on new technology without impressive results.

The most successful police efforts usually have involved coordination by either a civilian expert or an expert developed from within departmental ranks. Chicago’s program, for example, is coordinated by the department’s own director of research and development.

The best systems weren’t composed of ready-made products bought piecemeal. They were flexible and developed with the input of working officers in terms of the help needed most. In some cases, software companies worked hand in hand with police departments to provide continuing assistance and fine-tuning.

In Hudson County, N.J., a $2-million computer software system directly links the prosecutor’s office with 12 municipal police departments. In Chicago, a computer system offers a crime database, online maps and lists that can reveal patterns involving locations, times and descriptions of offenders and victims.

In the Orange County city of Tustin, police have developed a huge web site on the Internet that provides citizens with considerable information. The pages include everything from a graffiti hotline to warnings about crime scams. The offerings also include detailed neighborhood maps that display the locations of incidents ranging from armed robberies to car thefts.

If a motorist stopped by police in North Miami Beach, Fla., is the subject of an arrest warrant, the officer’s “Computer-Assisted Radio-Linked Infobase” even plays the “Bad Boys” theme from the “Cops” television show.

The LAPD has a history that clearly demonstrates a need for help in putting resources to good use. Department experts badly underestimated costs on a 1989 voter-approved bond issue and failed to build two new police stations that were promised. Voters approved $235 million in 1992 for an improved 911 system but progress has been slow.

The department needs to bring focus to all such efforts, and the best way to do that is to put new technology and modernization programs under the aegis of a single office within the LAPD. The department must make better use of what it gets or the next time it asks for a hand from the voters it might find only a tight fist.