Forwarded From: Nicholas Charles Brawn <ncb05@uow.edu.au>
WSJ: Gore To Unveil High-Tech Effort Against Crime
DJ 5/19/98 7:01 AM
By John Simons
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Al Gore is expected to unveil a White House
effort to strengthen federal law enforcement, an initiative that includes
arming agents with James Bond-like high-technology gadgets.
In a speech today at the 17th annual Peace Officers Memorial Services
here, Mr. Gore is expected to announce that the Energy Department will
share its vast storehouse of valuable technology with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Until now,
the tools had been used only by the Energy Department to root out Cold War
espionage. The initiative doesn't involve any additional funds.
The technology that will be shared with FBI and ATF agents includes:
-- Portable chemical-analysis machines that can gather forensic
crime-scene data.
-- Software used to track cellular-telephone fraud, Internet pedophile
activity and on-line intellectual-property theft.
-- Hand-held geographic positioning devices that can record video, store
voice notes and help agents visually reconstruct crime scenes.
-- Nuclear-detection technology and drug-analysis laboratories.
"This new partnership will help law enforcement across the country deploy
the cutting-edge technologies of our national labs to fight drugs, violent
crime, white-collar crime and terrorism," Mr. Gore said yesterday. "With
this landmark agreement, we will be able to fight 21st century crime with
21st century crimefighting tools."
Mr. Gore also is expected to ask Congress to pass proposed legislation
that provides funding for bulletproof vests for state, local and federal
police officers. And he will call for stiff penalties on criminals who use
bulletproof vests when they commit crimes.
In some sense, the Clinton administration is making up for lost time. In
an era when young hackers routinely break into government computers and
drug traffickers mask their deeds with encrypted cellular-phone calls,
law-enforcement officials and private analysts widely acknowledge that the
police are at somewhat of a disadvantage.
In his speech, Mr. Gore is expected to highlight a recent example of how
technology partnerships can help fight crime. The Energy Department's Oak
Ridge National Laboratory helped police in Chattanooga, Tenn., solve a case
in which the defendant said that he accidentally shot and killed a store
clerk in a scuffle during a 1995 holdup. The police took the store's video
surveillance tape to the national lab, where forensic technicians digitally
enhanced the video and determined that the shooting was deliberate.
When presented with the evidence, the suspect agreed to plead guilty to
first-degree murder and was sentenced to life without parole. The local
district attorney's office estimates that the lab's work saved more than
$100,000 by avoiding a death-penalty trial.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 05-19-98
01:01 AM
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Received on Tue May 19 09:53:43 1998