In-Car Database New Tool for Deputies

Orange County sheriff’s deputies will soon be able to access the Internet and download photographs--from criminal mug shots to DMV photos--from their squad cars, reducing the time it can take to identify a suspect.

The technology, tested statewide for the last six months, will allow deputies to sift through millions of photographs in seconds or type the barest of descriptions into a search engine and call up the images of possible suspects.

Officers will also have the ability to create photographic lineups in the field to show to crime victims and witnesses.

The computer program will be installed at a cost of $9 million in all 350 Sheriff’s Department cruisers in Orange County over the next 18 months.

At a press briefing Tuesday in Santa Ana, state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer described Cal-Photo as a “breakthrough crime-fighting tool” that will eventually be standard equipment in every police car.

Sheriff Michael S. Carona said he will urge police departments throughout Orange County to install computers in squad cars capable of running the Cal-Photo program or upgrade computers with the software.

While police departments across the country have the ability to transmit photos to officers in the field, Lockyer said, Cal-Photo is the quickest and most advanced system available.

Officers will be able to access 32 million DMV photos and a Department of Justice database of more than 200,000 mug shots. “Pictures can not only replace a thousand words of description, they can save precious minutes in life-or-death situations,” Lockyer said.

The DMV receives about 1,600 requests a day for information and photos, and much of the work is done by hand, said Maria Contreras-Sweet, acting secretary of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, who attended Tuesday’s briefing. She said it can take hours or even days to locate a photo needed by police officers.

“Anyone who has ever seen an officer checking a vehicle registration or a driver’s license from a police car knows what a vital role the massive DMV database plays in law enforcement,” Contreras-Sweet said.

The Cal-Photo software was designed by programmers with the state Department of Justice and now is being eyed by law enforcement agencies across the country, said Sheriff’s Capt. Ron Wilkerson.

The system was tested in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Ventura County, Sacramento, Fresno, San Jose and San Diego. It has been used since Sept. 11 by the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center as well as state and federal anti-terrorism task forces to track suspects.

Law enforcement officials need only a license number or the first three letters of a person’s last name to search for a photograph. The system operates like a search engine, letting officers find photos with limited information.

Chula Vista police officers this year tracked down a San Diego man in an assault case using witness statements that the assailant was white and had an artificial leg. The suspect’s picture was later picked out from a photo lineup.

“It is only a picture,” Wilkerson said. “But it is a huge surge of information in the patrol car.”