"Logan Airport police using BlackBerries for background checks"

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Police at Logan to use wireless database
The Associated Press


DANVERS, Mass. (AP) - State troopers at Logan International Airport will
be able to use a handheld wireless device to search a vast database of
information about people they are investigating. 

Officials at LocatePLUS Holdings Corp. said troopers could use a
Blackberry wireless device to search the company's database, which
contains billions of online public records. 

Jon Latorella, president and chief executive of the company said the
company aggregates and integrates a number of databases to create a
"complete dossier" on people that investigators find useful. 

"It's a great response. Everywhere we've shown it, everyone wants it,"
he said. 

Latorella wouldn't say how many of the Blackberrys would be used by the
State Police. 

State Police Lt. Thomas Coffey said the system has already been in use
at the airport on a pilot basis. 

"It's an invaluable system. It really provides us with information that
we probably could not obtain elsewhere without a lot of legwork," he
said. 

Coffey said troopers at Logan also can use a separate wireless device
that gives them access to law enforcement databases. 

LocatePLUS officials said other units of the State Police have already
been using their database. 

The company says it has more than 15,000 customers, including more than
2,000 law enforcement agencies. It estimates it has information in its
database on approximately 205 million people.


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