Funding for new police tool approved. COPLINK purchase
paired with other metro area buys.

1/7/2008 10:47:00 PM

By J.C. O'Connell
The Aurora Sentinel

Aurora | Local lawmakers approved funding Monday night, Jan. 7, for COPLINK, a computer software system that some say will revolutionize the way criminals are caught in Aurora.

Aurora City Council awarded $329,221 to Knowledge Computing Corp. for the software management system.

"It's going to be the most exciting thing we've done in policing in this state in a long time," said Police Chief Dan Oates, who purchased the same technology as chief of police in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The system allows police to search a variety of databases, including sex offender registries, court citations and records from various departments. More than 600 jurisdictions throughout the country use the system. Locally, all of the municipalities in Jefferson County use it.

In addition to allowing Aurora police officers to better integrate their own data and profiles on criminal suspects, the technology will help law enforcement departments across Colorado exchange information more quickly, supporters said.

The software is also being acquired by seven other Colorado municipalities, Oates said.

Together, the law enforcement agencies that signed an agreement with Aurora to purchase the software and share information across the system, represent a total force of 4,749 law enforcement officers.

Oates said it will take two to three months to get COPLINK up and running.

Oates originally proposed acquiring the system in 2006 for $425,000, but the city was able to negotiate a lower price because other jurisdictions agreed to also purchase the technology.

Councilwoman Molly Markert, who was initially skeptically of COPLINK, congratulated Oates and the city's IT Department on their work, calling COPLINK a "metro-wide solution to a metro-wide problem."