Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Prineville drug team gets high-tech listening device

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2004 04:56:34 -0500

Prineville drug team gets high-tech listening device

Bend Bulletin, OR - Feb 20, 2004
By Andrew Satter

The Bulletin

WASHINGTON — Thanks to a federal government grant program, the
Prineville Police Department's war on drugs will be able to listen where
it could not before.

As part of an Office of the National Drug Control Policy program that
transfers drug enforcement technology to police departments throughout
the country, the Prineville drug enforcement team scored a high-tech
audio surveillance system, the department's first such monitoring
device.

Previously, whenever officers needed a hidden wiretap they had to borrow
one from a neighboring department.
"It definitely will be nice having our own system," said Prineville
Narcotics Detective Brian Bottoms. "Whenever we need some equipment like
that, we need to drive all the way to Bend."

According to information provided by the technology transfer program's
officials, the device is a "covert body-worn audio surveillance
transmitter and receiver system."

The vendor, Tactical Technologies, declined to comment on the device,
saying it did not want to compromise officers' safety.
The surveillance system costs between $6,000 and $10,000, and it can
transmit signals at a frequency commonly associated with radio or
television wavelengths.

Such high frequencies reduce the amount of interference in a
transmission, allowing for less distortion.
In a field in which every spoken word can mean the difference between
catching drug offenders and letting them back on the streets, crystal
clear signals are imperative, said Bottoms.

"When you have a suspect testifying, clear audio surveillance recordings
give us a stronger case when we have to go to court," Bottoms said.

Bottoms said the other primary benefit of a wiretap device is to ensure
the safety of undercover informants.
"If something happens we can get in there and save them before it gets
bad," Bottoms said.

Congress established the program in 1998 with the goal of providing
drug-countering technologies to under-budgeted law enforcement agencies.
Since its inception, the program has equipped more than 6,000
jurisdictions throughout the country with drug-fighting resources.

In order to obtain the equipment, interested departments were required
to submit an application detailing their needs and the technology that
would best address those needs.

Prineville Police Department Detective Dave Calhoun, who was responsible
for the department's application process, said he requested the grant
because his agency would not be able to afford such superior technology
on its own.

"Since we live in a rural area where a lot of good technology is not
available, what we have to do is provide information such as the size of
our town and specifically what types of illegal drug activity we are
dealing with," Calhoun said.
Last year, Bottoms said, Prineville officers made between 160 and 165
drug-related arrests.

Calhoun, along with 350 officers from 46 states, spent Wednesday and
Thursday in the District of Columbia at a mandatory training session on
how to use the new technology.

"The training was excellent," Calhoun said. "The training was designed
so that I can go back to my agency and teach other officers how to use
this technology and use it effectively."

Calhoun said that even though Prineville received the grant, the
surveillance device will be made available to all officers involved in
the tri-country Central Oregon Drug Enforcement task force.
Andrew Satter can be reached at 202-661-0151 or at
[email-masked]
 http://www.bendbulletin.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=12698
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