AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Law enforcement agencies across the Panhandle now have a new way to share data faster, with a tool that's right at their fingertips.
The Law Enforcement Analysis Portal or LEAP is a project that was completed last year.
Its goal is to put more than 140 mobile data terminals in the vehicles of 40 different departments in our area.
It started with the Panhandle Regional Information and Data Exchange or PRIDE.
That's a system that is developed exclusively for licensed peace officers, and its target was providing new and emerging technology to law enforcement agencies.
LEAP which is a spinoff of the PRIDE system, is an information and data exchange system that serves a lot of different jurisdictions in Texas and into Oklahoma.
John Kiehl, PRPC Regional Services Director said, "Allowing them to share information about people that have come in contact with the criminal justice system that information is useful at every level of law enforcement"
It will help police officers primarily because they will have the information at their fingertips that will make them more efficient.
"Its helps enhance officer safety, if they have an idea of who might be in a vehicle before they approach that vehicle, then obviously they'll take whatever measures necessary if they think that that person may be a person of interest."
Even the sharing between counties will create new opportunities.
For one thing, officers will be able to recover some of the outstanding Class C warrants that often get overlooked in another county.
"Quite often one county doesn't know what kind of outstanding Class C warrants may be evident in the county right next to them and this way they'll be able to share that information amongst themselves and be able to close some of those cases."
Kiehl says every new tool we can put in the hands of our law enforcement should help them do their jobs more efficiently and safely.
