Friday, September 5, 2008

Lighthouse plans to track R.I. criminals using GPS

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Lincoln, R.I.-based technology integrator Lighthouse Computer Services Inc. has completed development of a new criminal tracking system for use by police and courts, and the company is preparing to present it to state officials. If all goes according to plan, the system could be implemented in the Ocean State this winter.

The system, which uses the satellite-based global positioning system (GPS), was initially requested two years ago by Justice Assistance, a Cranston-based nonprofit criminal justice advocacy group. According to agency officials, the goal was to build an ankle-bracelet tracking system more effective than current systems while posing a lower cost to taxpayers.

“The systems that are out there now are two or three piece systems, using cellular or landline technologies,” said Jim Berard, the leader of the Criminal Tracking team at Lighthouse. “That gives two or three points of failure, and possible interference in tunnels, parking garages and other places.”

After two years of research and a $200,000 grant won with assistance from the office of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), Lighthouse has developed a GPS-based system officials said is more accurate in locating offenders than traditional systems, while also creating a back-end data system that can be shared by multiple agencies in near real time.

“Let’s say a child is abducted from a park,” said Jonathan Houston, executive director of Justice Assistance. “Police would be able to pull up all of the sexual offenders in the area, and narrow down who may have been in the area.”

The system’s GPS hardware was built by Omnilink Systems Inc. in Georgia, which has deployed 4,500 such units across the country for similar applications. Lighthouse designed the web-based interface for the Justice Assistance system that will allow local, state and federal officials access to the data.

Lighthouse and Justice Assistance will begin the bidding process in several towns in Rhode Island in October. Because of the bid process, the pricing of the system was not disclosed. The tandem is also waiting for word on $850,000 in additional funding with assistance from Rep. Kennedy’s office that would help deploy products in the field.