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GPS Tools Let Public Clock Cruisers In Pinellas County

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 22, 2008

Updated: 01/22/2008 01:11 am

LARGO - Did you ever want to know how fast a police officer was driving on a particular day?

Now you can find out - if he or she works for the St. Petersburg Police Department, the Clearwater Police Department or the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Last year, those agencies installed high-tech dispatch systems that record how fast an officer is driving, whether to a 911 call or heading home in a take-home cruiser.

The information also is available to the public under most circumstances.

"If we collect it, it's a public record," St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.

The systems use GPS satellites to pinpoint a squad car's location at different points in time. With some simple arithmetic, it's not hard for a computer to figure out how fast the officer had to drive to get from one point to the other.

Many agencies, including the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, use GPS in their dispatch systems to keep track of personnel. That way, help can be sent if they get in trouble and dispatchers know which officer is closest to a crime when it's reported.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office doesn't have the new technology; nor does the Tampa Police Department.

No Tracking In Tampa

Tampa soon will install a new dispatch system, but it won't include a feature that can determine a cruiser's speed, said Jim Contento, a retired sergeant now working as a department spokesman.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office didn't know its $1.2 million TriTech system could track deputies' speeds until administrators were alerted by an anonymous call placed to the Clearwater Police Department, Pinellas sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner said.

The call was referred to the sheriff's office because it and Clearwater police switched to the same TriTech system in a joint endeavor, and the sheriff's office is taking the lead role, Bordner said.

Both agencies' systems went into operation in the fall. They log a deputy's longitude and latitude every 20 seconds and retain the information, said Tom Peter, the information technology manager for the sheriff's office.

The caller, Bordner said, claimed to be working for a lawyer's office and asked whether the new computer-aided-dispatch system could determine deputies' speeds.

"The system was so new we didn't know what its capabilities were," Bordner said.

A sample was run, and administrators found that one deputy, Frank Felicetta, had driven more than 100 mph on his way home, Bordner said. When confronted, Felicetta acknowledged speeding. It was noted in his evaluation, Bordner said, but Felicetta will not be subject to an internal affairs investigation.

Analysts realized there may be occasional errors with the system, as some squad cars were deemed to be traveling in excess of 200 mph, which is impossible, Bordner said, adding that such errors might occur when the system loses its link to a GPS satellite.

Deputies On Notice

Though the TriTech system was not purchased to determine deputies' speeds, supervisors at the sheriff's office have been told they can access the system to do just that. And deputies have been put on notice that anyone from the public can ask for the information.

In a memorandum to dispatch users Dec. 21, Dan Wiggins, the director of support services at the sheriff's office, addressed the agency's legal obligations in the matter:

"While the new CAD was not purchased with records retention as a requirement, we need to inform you that all the GPS and AVL automatic vehicle locator information will be retained for three years and is accessible by supervisors or via public records requests."

Wiggins told The Tampa Tribune this week that the agency intends to cut the period to three months.

The St. Petersburg Police Department, whose $4.5 million Intergraph system came on line in January 2007, also understands that its database of officers' speeds is public record, Proffitt said. St. Petersburg will retain the information for at least three months.

It will be accessed only if someone complains about an officer's speeds, if another issue involving an officer's location comes up or if speed is a factor in a traffic-related incident. Unlike their counterparts at the sheriff's office, police department supervisors cannot access the system merely to see how fast their charges are driving, Proffitt said.

"We didn't spend $4.5 million just so we could spy on officers," Proffitt said.

Once word gets out that the information is public, Proffitt said, defense lawyers looking to call an officer's credibility into question can ask for the data in the hope of finding the officer broke the law by speeding.

"It could be a nightmare," Proffitt said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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