Computer in San Luis Obispo Extends Long Arm of the Law

A woman walks into her home and surprises a burglar. He runs out. It’s dark, but she’s able to describe him: young, dark hair, a tattoo on his right forearm, a scar over his left eye, a mustache.

Investigators feed the information into their computer. Seconds later, three names pop up. One suspect is in County Jail, another is in state prison. The third, a drug addict, is out on probation. The computer gives his address. The woman is able to positively identify the man.

This dream of law enforcement is becoming a reality in San Luis Obispo County, where authorities say their crime computer system is rivaled by only a few others in the country.

“I hate to use the word revolutionary, but it will be a revolution in the criminal justice community,” said Dan Hayward, the county director of technical services.

Started This Month

The Sheriff’s Department began using the county’s criminal justice information system this month. By the end of the year, the computer’s information base should be completed, and the system will hook together police and sheriff’s stations with the district attorney’s office, the courts, the Probation Department and other agencies.

In most other jurisdictions there are computers in each of these departments, but they don’t work together or “talk to one another,” said Lt. Peter Raugh of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, one of the many police agencies watching San Luis Obispo County’s system.

“It reduces redundant data entry; it reduces errors” Raugh said. “It speeds up the process. . . . It not only assists the police officer on the street, but it helps the prosecutor, the defense attorney. It helps the defendant. There’s not the delay in getting information.”

Paper Work Eased

Reports that are usually shuffled from agency to agency will be done once and immediately become available to everyone using the computer, easing the paper work load that clogs most systems.

If a suspect in a crime has a scar on his shoulder, the computer will name everyone arrested in the county with a similar scar. If detectives want the name of every person contacted by police within a mile of a murder scene hours after the crime, they get it, instantly.

“We didn’t add any information,” said J. R. Davis, a county computer programmer and former sheriff’s deputy who helped design the system. “We just provided a system that allows detectives, records and deputies to get to that information in one method.

“It’s like having a records clerk on duty hours a day. And it’s having them be able to answer our questions in a few seconds rather than a few hours.”

John Calvin, sheriff’s crime analyst, said the system will have three main uses: crime analysis, allocating manpower and investigation.

“There’s almost no level of detail it will not encompass,” Calvin said.