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Biloxi police go their own way

MASP a bust at $19M, they buy their own system

By MICHAEL A. BELL
mbell@sunherald.com

BILOXI --

Frustrated by a lack of progress with a $19 million federal computer project, Biloxi city officials recently spent $800,000 in drug forfeiture money on a separate computer system for their police and fire departments.

Police Chief Bruce Dunagan said he's tired of waiting on the Mississippi Automated System Project to deliver technology to his officers, and the city is terminating its five-year relationship with the program this month.

"We can't wait around," Dunagan said. "We've still got all the citizens out here to help."

Launched in 2002, the pilot project at the University of Southern Mississippi administered by Project Director Julian Allen promised to create an information-sharing network for Coast public safety - police, fire, jails, all linked into one system. Its goal was to end any communication-system turf wars between agencies in Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties, and help solve crimes faster.

Sen. Thad Cochran and former Sen. Trent Lott backed the project - the brainchild of former Harrison County Sheriff George H. Payne Jr. - with pledges of $25 million through 2009, hoping the network would expand across the state and eventually the nation. The equipment came at no cost to the users, with no contract to sign. It was, essentially, free technology.

Almost every public safety agency in South Mississippi - from Ocean Springs in the east to Waveland in the west - signed on.

Biloxi leaders, like others, believed their patrol officers would soon be accessing mug shots, criminal histories and arrest warrants, with the data crawling across laptop screens once the "enter" key is tapped. The technology was promised to be delivered by February 2005.

Tired of waiting, Biloxi nearly emptied its drug forfeiture "rainy day" fund to purchase a package from Tyler Technology, a renowned leader in public sector software. It's a system also used by Gulfport, which chose not to join the MASP at the outset.

"We would be going backward," Gulfport Fire Chief Pat Sullivan said, adding that MASP didn't offer them anything they weren't already using.

In addition, Allen, the MASP director, could never answer what it would actually cost to run his system once the federal tax dollars were exhausted in 2009.

Police Chief Alan Weatherford doesn't want the decision back. On March 1, the city launched a $2 million wireless program - also funded by drug forfeiture money - for about 175 officers and city officials.

The Tyler-designed software has officers accessing criminal records and viewing mug shots from their cruisers, the information routed from the city's server and zapped into their mounted laptops.