THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 3, 1997 TAG: 9702030027
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 73 lines
Imagine this: Police predicting when and where a burglary will occur and helping a shop owner prevent it.
Beyond that, say they expect the burglar, wearing a blue ski mask, to hit a business in the 100 block of Main St. between 8 p.m. and midnight on Tuesday. And police will be there to greet the intruder.
How? Through details of past incidents.
Suffolk police are the first in South Hampton Roads to use the new Incident Based Reporting system. But by 1999, all Virginia police departments will use it to track crimes and identify trends.
Now gaze a bit further into the future and see police typing on laptop computers in their patrol cars to update databases immediately.
Gone will be the days of filling out paperwork to be entered into computers by a clerk.
``The ultimate goal is a paperless environment,'' said Capt. Richard H. Hurd, who oversees the Suffolk Police Department's records management.
But for today, it's Suffolk officers dealing with an unfamiliar maze of four-page forms, instead of the simple, single sheet they once filled out, and records clerks with abacklog of reports to enter.
City police started using the new system Jan. 1. The first month's report soon will go electronically to the state police.
``It's been a trial for everyone,'' Hurd acknowledged.
IBR eventually will replace the nationwide Uniform Crime Reporting system, used to compile crime data from all law enforcement agencies. All 271 law enforcement agencies in Virginia must comply.
``We had to bite the bullet sometime,'' said Hurd, who spent a year and a half preparing for the system's implementation. Suffolk was a test site in 1989, when the state was considering IBR.
``What we're trying to do is stay with the game plan,'' Hurd said. ``If we fall behind, it will be that much harder to catch up.''
To be certified, a department must submit reports with at least 96 percent accuracy for three consecutive months.
IBR will help by providing additional statistical data offering clues to crime-solving, Hurd said.
But the information-gathering is time-consuming and tedious.
For each offense, there's a four-page form with 258 boxes to check - many with multiple items. Complicated offenses, such as a shooting with more than one victim, require additional paperwork.
The old form had 130 boxes asking simple questions.
The new form asks officers to notice such details as whether an offender is right-handed or left-handed; lisps, mumbles or stutters; has false, missing or protruding teeth; has freckles or acne; has crossed, bulging or bloodshot eyes; wears a wig or toupee.
Many departments are obtaining state grants to help with the conversion. Suffolk got a $35,500 grant, mainly for new software.
So far, 97 agencies have been certified, and 13 - including Suffolk - have started using the system but have not passed the three-month accuracy test, said Scott Ripley, state police program analyst who's in charge of IBR testing.
Ripley said most departments balked at first.
``Some agencies haven't even used a computer for anything,'' he said. ``They're stumped. They don't know what to do.''
The main complaint, however, has been that the software is not custom-made, he said.
``Invariably, once they've been using it a few months, the complaints go away,'' he said. ``They say, `What did we do without this?' ''
Franklin was one of the first to submit data to the state - in October 1994 - passing its test after the first three months. The department has been certified for two years, but computer coordinator Michael I. ``Mickey'' Futrell said numerous problems had to be worked out.
``It's not something you start today, and everything works smoothly,'' he said.
``There are certain things that are mandatory,'' he said. ``If you don't have that data, you can't put it in. It takes some time.''