05/12/2008

Associated Press

The Seattle Police Department is preparing to deploy an electronic tracking system that will allow officers and dispatchers to get an overall view of where officers are deployed at any given moment.

The goal is to help direct the closest officer to an emergency, and to be a safety net when an officer doesn't have time to radio his or her position in a fast-paced scenario, police officials say.

The department plans to equip its entire fleet with the new Automatic Vehicle Locator system beginning in February, as part of a $6.3 million overhaul of the department's computer-aided dispatch and records management system, Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said.

"This isn't Google maps and it's not an automatic navigation system that tells you to turn right at 200 feet. It's simply an application that shows you where you are," Pugel said. "That addresses a number of tactical, operational and officer-safety issues."

Dispatchers will have an extra computer screen displaying icons for each officer in their sector.

The system could be used, for example, in managing a response to a bank robbery or missing child, or when officers rush to seal off streets. A supervisor could stand back and coordinate where all the resources need to go, Pugel said.

"In the past it's always been over the radio, so it took up valuable air time to tell everyone where you were," he said.

Officers will be able to access the tracking information through computer terminals in their cars, Pugel said.

The Seattle Police Officers' Guild wanted guarantees that the system wouldn't be used to spy on officers, so a policy was hammered out in a proposed labor contract that is awaiting a vote by officers.

The two sides also drafted a policy prohibiting AVL from being used to grade an officer's performance or monitor his or her conduct, unless it's part of a criminal misconduct investigation, said Sgt. Rich O'Neill, the guild president.

"It's a great officer-safety tool, especially if the officer gets out of the car and they can't raise him on the radio," O'Neill said. "But we had concerns that it could be abused."

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Information from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://www.seattle-pi.com/