COPLINK® Jumpstarts Metro Policing and Expands in Texas With the Opening of The Houston Police Department's Crime Center

Tucson, AZ --- February 26, 2008 --- Knowledge Computing Corporation today announced that its award-winning COPLINK® solution suite is successfully deployed and supporting the Houston Police Department's Crime Center. The Houston Crime Center's mission is to analyze and disseminate real-time crime information that will enhance field personnel's ability to solve violent crime. COPLINK's end-to-end information sharing, tactical lead generation, analytics, visualization and decision support solution is used to help police officers solve crimes, reduce violent crimes and improve community safety. The Houston Crime Center was unveiled to the public last week by Mayor Bill White and Police Chief Harold L Hurtt.

"Houston's Crime Center is a great example of how COPLINK increases the effectiveness of metro policing strategies by instantly delivering tactical and actionable leads to crime analysts and field officers alike that would otherwise be next to impossible to assemble or analyze," said Chief Hurtt. "This technology will significantly speed the process of identifying and apprehending violent or petty criminals who might otherwise remain under the radar and will help keep Houston safe."

"Houston has a leadership position in effective urban policing strategies, and we are pleased to support their efforts to thwart and apprehend criminals across the metropolitan area with COPLINK," said Robert Griffin, CEO of Knowledge Computing Corp. "This initiative also expands regional capability to combat all crimes-all threats by building on the successes of Houston's first COPLINK deployment in 2006 at the Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center - a counterterrorism fusion center."

COPLINK provides unparalleled analysis and decision support for rapidly identifying criminal suspects, relationships and patterns that help solve crime and thwart terrorism. Using a NIEM and LEXS API compliant interface, it works by allowing vast quantities of structured and seemingly unrelated data - including data currently housed in various incompatible databases and records management systems - to be securely organized, consolidated and rapidly analyzed over a highly secure intranet-based platform.

One search using known facts and/or partial descriptions from an ongoing investigation can in seconds, produce qualified leads that would otherwise be unapparent - a process that prior to COPLINK was not possible or often takes days or weeks to accomplish. Through sophisticated analytics, including powerful visualization tools, COPLINK builds "institutional memory," reduces knowledge gaps and prevents criminals from falling through the cracks.

Chief Hurtt added, "Houston's Crime Center is the realization of a long-term vision. It is a regionalized tool that promotes interoperability between local, federal and state law enforcement agencies by providing real time data analysis and distribution. Pertinent, accurate information disseminated quickly to field officers will help keep Houston safe."

Additional information on the Crime Center is available from Chief Hurtt through his blog at: http://hpdchief.blogspot.com/2008/02/crime-center-grand-opening.html.

Like every COPLINK deployment, Houston uses the solution for law enforcement purposes only, utilizing public data from the Houston Police Department's records management system as well as the Harris County Sheriff's Office's jail management system. Data from these systems continues to reside and be updated at the existing sources to protect the integrity of the data and sensitive information. In addition, users are only able to view and access criminal history records according to their security clearances.

COPLINK also creates a detailed audit trail for every search conducted. This serves two purposes. Officers seeking to question or obtain a warrant on suspects identified through the system are able to clearly demonstrate with hard facts how that person fits the criminal profile and how others were excluded. The System Administrator is also able to monitor use for audit purposes to identify any abuse that would result in suspension of a user's access privileges under the policies established by participating agencies.

Designed by line-level law enforcement officers and investigators, COPLINK is tactically sophisticated yet user-friendly. Even the most non-technical law enforcement officials can master it in less than a day.

Winner of numerous awards, COPLINK was recognized twice by the International Association of Chiefs of Police for deployments in Tucson, Arizona and across the State of Alaska. The Center for Digital Government also recognized COPLINK as one of the best-of-breed and most innovative IT projects undertaken by cities in the nation.


About Knowledge Computing Corporation

Knowledge Computing Corp. provides technology-based crime-fighting solutions to leading edge law enforcement agencies nationwide. Its critically-acclaimed COPLINK® solution, in use since 1998, is based on knowledge management technology first prototyped by top-ranked researchers in the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson through a grant by the National Institute of Justice. The technologies developed at Knowledge Computing Corp. have been tested and proven by law enforcement agencies around the country. For more information: www.knowledgecc.com or www.coplink.com.