Criminal locator Web site helps solve crimes across the U.S.

Key Benefits

• High Performance
• The Web

The best way to fight crime is by preventing it from happening in the first place, and one of the best ways to prevent crime is by providing a comprehensive flow of information among police, citizens' groups, and individuals.

With this objective in mind, in 1997 the Seminole County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office (SCSO) launched its crime-tracking Web site, www.seminolesheriff.org. Sheriff Donald F. Eslinger recognized that quickly putting valuable intelligence into the hands of officers and concerned citizens helps deter crime. The site serves as a tool for citizens' groups and law enforcement agencies across the U.S. and around the world. It contains extensive information about registered felons, missing and endangered persons, sex offenders, and other pieces of information that can be useful in fighting crime at the community level.

As the site became burdened with a heavier amount of data, the Sheriff's Office determined that the site must be made faster and more responsive for even the most complex information requests. ICGate, a Web design and development firm, performed extensive renovations and enhancements. Keeping in mind the need to increase the speed by which visitors can access information through the site, ICGate utilized Caché, a high-performance database from InterSystems. "The way Caché handles and accesses data is faster than anything I've ever seen," said Pete Robinson, SCSO's special projects coordinator and Webmaster. While SCSO uses other database technologies for other applications, Robinson said that Caché is easily 30 percent faster than other technologies. "It's fast," he said. "That's what I'm after: speed.

"The way Caché handles and accesses data is faster than anything I've ever seen,"

"It's so fast, it's scary," he joked. "Granted, we're connected to a T1 line, but sometimes, when I put in a request and hit the return key, it comes back so fast I don't believe it. I don't believe it can respond as fast as it did."

Caché's multidimensional data model makes it possible to catalogue and access thousands of photographs and criminal records, making them readily viewable online. Caché is the same database that is used in some of the most critical applications around the world. Ameritrade uses it to processes investors' transactions, and in life and death environments it is the database used by more hospitals and laboratories around the world.

Privacy rules dictate that certain information, such as offenders' license numbers, fingerprints, social security numbers and victims' names, be protected from public view. Although citizens have access to a great deal of information, the bulk is available only to law enforcement officers who enter a password-protected site after registering with the Webmaster. The secure area includes additional detailed information about convicted felons and other offenders.

Since the introduction of the Caché database, the average time needed to process information requests has been cut by approximately 30 percent. In the first six months of 2001, more than a half a million visitors viewed information on the site, and the number of visitors continue to grow every month. From the time registration forms are completed by the felon to placement of the information on the site itself, throughput has been reduced by about 60 percent, saving the Sheriff's Office time and resources.

Since the site's inception, it has proved its effectiveness by assisting agencies across Florida and in North America and Europe.

• Two suspects arrested for a daring daytime burglary in Florida were identified thanks to Internet co-operation of several agencies. Suspects had prior arrests in Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
• A suspect, wanted on three outstanding warrants, was arrested by the New York Police Department's Queens Robbery Squad. A positive ID was made with information found on the site.
• Officers of a Pennsylvania agency used information from the site to positively identify a traveling criminal arrested during a residential burglary.
• Maryland police stopped a potential driveway-paving scheme when positive suspect IDs were made using information on the traveling criminals section of the site.
• Four arrests were made in a New Jersey residential burglary. Information taken from the site was used to make a positive ID on one subject, leading to the identification of others.
• The South Carolina State Police stopped two traveling criminals and through the Sheriff's Office website, tied them to a $500,000 Atlanta jewelry burglary. They were subsequently held on a $1,000,000 bond.

"Caché is being used in extremely innovative applications being launched everywhere on the Web. The Seminole County Sheriff Web site illustrates one of the reasons why high performance on the Web isn't just desirable-it's a requirement for success," said Paul Grabscheid, InterSystems' vice president of strategic planning.