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Clearwater Police, County Deputies Integrate High-Tech Systems

News Channel 8 photo by KATY HENNIG

Pinellas Deputy Rafael Navarro works with the software on a laptop computer in his cruiser.

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 2, 2009

In the days of old, if a woman told a dispatcher she had been raped in Clearwater, and the dispatcher realized the crime occurred outside the city's boundaries, the woman would be given a telephone number to call.

Then she would have to tell her story all over again, to a dispatcher for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

No more.

The Clearwater Police Department and the Pinellas sheriff's office this afternoon unveiled state-of-the-art technology that allows dispatchers to share their respective computer-aided dispatch or CAD systems.

Now, that Clearwater dispatcher hearing the rape victim's story takes the information regardless of where the assault occurred, and help is dispatched with the push of a button on a computer keyboard, be it a Clearwater police officer or a Pinellas sheriff's deputy.

Meanwhile, out in the field, officers from both agencies can see what squad car is dispatched where on their lap top computers, thanks to a map that features GPS or Global Positioning System technology.

That feature of the new system is expected to come in handy during natural disasters, as different deputies and officers are sent to emergencies at different locations.

The so-called CAD-2-CAD system was paid for with $493,322 in federal grants, according to officials from both agencies. That doesn't include the amount paid by each agency for its original CAD system, which was designed by Tri-Tech.

Clearwater Police Chief Sid Klein and Pinellas Sheriff Jim Coats touted the new system as the first partnership of its kind in Pinellas County.

But Coats acknowledged none of the other large law enforcement agencies, such as the St. Petersburg Police Department, whose jurisdiction, like the Clearwater Police Department's, overlaps with Coats,' has expressed an interest in joining.

The only agency that has expressed an interest in becoming part of the partnership is the Pinellas Park Police Department, said Bill Baird, the deputy chief of the Clearwater Police Department.

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

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