wigstheone
Jan 15, 02, 8:18 am
BOSTON (AP)--A pager-sized device that's more likely to be found in a Wall Street briefcase than on a state trooper's belt could become an important new weapon in the war against terrorism.
Logan International Airport is the first in the nation to test the BlackBerry as an electronic gateway to state and federal criminal databases, giving law enforcement officers the kind of information backup they've long said they lacked.
The wireless devices, made by Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion since 1999, generally are used by businesspeople to check e-mails or surf the Internet when they are away from their desks.
The devices being used at Logan are packaged with a software that enables officers to send encrypted queries to state and federal databases over a wireless network and get responses in less than a minute.
Logan officials are using the system as part of their effort to strengthen security after terrorists boarded two passenger jets at the airport on Sept. 11 and crashed them into the World Trade Center.
The BlackBerry patrols began two months ago after Aether Systems Inc., which makes the PocketBlue software, offered to let Logan try the $89-a-month devices for free. Aether said airports in three other major cities are considering similar tests but declined to name the cities.
At Logan, 10 troopers who'd been trained in counterterrorism were taught to scroll through the BlackBerry's menu and send simple queries to a distant computer about a suspect's criminal history. A "hit" automatically sends an alarm to other troopers using the device.
It's more efficient than a phone or radio query, which requires human interaction.
"If you go and ask for a couple of registration checks through a dispatcher, they'll get a little upset because you're adding to the workload," said Gerald Burke, director of the New England Law Enforcement Management Institute. "You can run with the BlackBerry hundreds of checks on your own and you don't bother a dispatcher."
Whether the devices could have helped to prevent the terrorist attacks isn't clear because the watch list only came into being after Sept. 11, FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said.
Dow Jones Online News, Tuesday, January 15, 2002
Logan International Airport is the first in the nation to test the BlackBerry as an electronic gateway to state and federal criminal databases, giving law enforcement officers the kind of information backup they've long said they lacked.
The wireless devices, made by Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion since 1999, generally are used by businesspeople to check e-mails or surf the Internet when they are away from their desks.
The devices being used at Logan are packaged with a software that enables officers to send encrypted queries to state and federal databases over a wireless network and get responses in less than a minute.
Logan officials are using the system as part of their effort to strengthen security after terrorists boarded two passenger jets at the airport on Sept. 11 and crashed them into the World Trade Center.
The BlackBerry patrols began two months ago after Aether Systems Inc., which makes the PocketBlue software, offered to let Logan try the $89-a-month devices for free. Aether said airports in three other major cities are considering similar tests but declined to name the cities.
At Logan, 10 troopers who'd been trained in counterterrorism were taught to scroll through the BlackBerry's menu and send simple queries to a distant computer about a suspect's criminal history. A "hit" automatically sends an alarm to other troopers using the device.
It's more efficient than a phone or radio query, which requires human interaction.
"If you go and ask for a couple of registration checks through a dispatcher, they'll get a little upset because you're adding to the workload," said Gerald Burke, director of the New England Law Enforcement Management Institute. "You can run with the BlackBerry hundreds of checks on your own and you don't bother a dispatcher."
Whether the devices could have helped to prevent the terrorist attacks isn't clear because the watch list only came into being after Sept. 11, FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said.
Dow Jones Online News, Tuesday, January 15, 2002