A number of questions:

What kind of technology is typical in a modern law enforcement agency at the city/county/state level? I know that you have mobile workstations in the cars, that these can be installed specialty devices or simply laptop computers, and that these devices are on the department's network, either by cell/radio/microwave link, which gives you access to department servers and either NCIC servers. Is that correct? What else is there? When you "book" a person, does that information get automatically entered into the department's database? Into the NCIC database? Others? Is it easy to scan in fingerprints and get them matched up with either one or a range of people already on file?

Can some of the LEOs on the list point me to vendors who specialize in the wireless technology for law enforcement (car to department links, etc).

The reason that I'm asking these questions is that I have an opportunity to do some consulting work for Tunisia (North Africa). They want to modernize. Right now, if they do a traffic stop, they're walking up to the car blind. They would like to be able to quickly run license plates, drivers licenses, passport numbers, etc. They also have limited capability when doing investigations, such as matching fingerprints. They will probably want access to some European and maybe American databases as well. And of course they will want the capablity to build there own database, but I can help them with that.

My specialty is computer networks and network security. In the US, customers typically hire people like me to handle only that part of the equation. They know or can find resources for the other stuff. In small countries elsewhere, they seem to want "one stop shopping", and I find that I get asked about stuff that's way outside my area of expertise. They seem to take well to my "I don't know but I'll try to find out" approach, because they have been ripped off in the past by Europeans (French, Italians, Greeks) who promise the world and can't deliver much beyond home/small office desktop level stuff.

Keep in mind that Tunisia is often a victim of terrorism itself. Arabs that are in opposition to their own governments often flee there, and are occasionally assisinated there. So there is much interest there in getting "on the ball" for fighting local and international crime.

Let me know...
-RJ

Everything we do is computerized....

In-car computers give us access to just about all the info we need, along with messaging between units/jurisdictions.

Booking, mugshots, fingerprints are all done on computer. Employee identification, staff records, everything - all on computer. Fingerprinting is done via AFIS.

We are fully computerized as well. We use SMARTCOP software. I'm now an office jock, however I can pull up the SMARTCAD on my computer in the office and get all of the same information as the mobile units. I can run NCIC/FCIC, and even e-mail 10-8 units from my desk. Our county and the two adjoining counties (this includes the area PD's as well) all are using the SMARTCOP software, and shortly we'll be interlinked so that information will flow much more effeciently from agency to agency.
e-mail me at [email protected] next week and I'll shoot you some links.
When someone is booked, the fingerprint is done ditigally and automatically stored and compared in AFIS. We are now doing iris scans of prisoners also. Digital photo's along with information goes into the computerized files, which can be pulled up from the car. You can run a tag, get the name, find out if the car is wanted/stolen, do a d/l check, local warrant, and run them FCIC/NCIC before you stop them. D/L photo's are available for the folks who have digital d/l photo's. Car to car e-mail. Of course CAD via an enhanced 911 system. We can e-mail other city units on the same system as ours, we don't link to the other two counties yet.