Tampa Area Police Share Criminals' Info Online
06/01/05

TAMPA, Fla. -- Criminals will no longer be able to hide in another county, and detectives won't have to call other agencies or search different online sources for information about a person's background.

With the click of the mouse, the Tampa Bay Security Network connects five Pinellas and Hillsborough County agencies and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. By next year, it will link 58 agencies in nine counties from Citrus County south to Manatee.

The system allows local law enforcement agencies to pull up on their computers just about anything from neighboring agencies. That includes booking mugs, arrest reports, witness interviews, traffic citations and dispatch reports.

The Security Network is based on a technology called COPLINK that is used by more than 100 U.S. jurisdictions.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.