Access Miami
Miami-Dade County, Fla., is using Web services to improve the integration of its department and agencies. A new police department application is a good example of the reason Miami-Dade has embraced Web services.
“Until we had mechanisms like Web services, almost everything was done in a point-to-point fashion, which is very expensive when you’re talking about integration,” explains Ira Feuer, assistant director of E-technologies.
With the new police department application, Miami-Dade police officers will gain immediate access to the criminal database of the county, as well as the criminal databases operated by the state of Florida and the FBI.
From their patrol cars, which are installed with laptop computers, Miami-Dade police officers will be able to initiate a query on someone they have pulled over to determine whether they are only a traffic violator or a more dangerous individual.
The query would lead to a inquiry of Florida’s state-wide system and the FBI database, which is known as the National Crime Information Center. The new application would then return a comprehensive response on the detained individual.
The Miami-Dade County police expects to launch the new system in March 2004. Web services solve the problems that the county has had with its siloed data structure, which has produced processes that are inefficient.
The approach allows Miami-Dade to move more toward standardization, and the streamlining of its technology and processes.
A storm-panel permits issuing tool was the first Web service application introduced by the county. Other projects could include a 311 county information call center, a property tax application, and a country employee self-service tool.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the CIO (12/01/03) Vol. 17, No. 5, P. 72; Low, Lafe.