ASAP program gives police more patrol time

Police in Allegheny County are booking criminals ASAP.

No more typewriters, no more writing criminal complaints by hand. Police in most of the county's 119 police departments now use the county's computerized system for filing criminal complaints -- the Allegheny Standard Arrest Program, known as ASAP. The system became operable in Pittsburgh police cruisers last week.

ASAP lessens the wait time to arraign suspects, gets police back on the streets more quickly and allows authorities to track progress of cases in real-time. Most of the county's 119 municipal police departments use the system, officials said.

County programmers designed the system, which officials proudly touted in Harrisburg last week to suggest it be used statewide.

"The goal is to be as paperless as possible," said District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala. "This is our product. It's a tremendous improvement over what we had previously. I can monitor each case through the system. I know exactly what's going on.

"This is the best product of its kind in Pennsylvania."

Some police chiefs initially were reluctant to embrace the technology, arguing their departments didn't have computers. Some police preferred banging out affidavits on typewriters.

"Some initially said, 'But I don't have a computer.' Well, you're going to have to get one. There was a rebellion by some of the chiefs, lots of silliness," said Common Pleas President Judge Joseph James.

"We had some hesitancy at first because it was a new way of doing business," acknowledged Dormont police Chief Russ McKibben. "Now its standardized."

ASAP was created in late 2005 and introduced to the first police departments in late 2006. This year, James said the system is effective and easy to use.

"It's possible we may market it to the rest of the state," James said.

Before, officers manually filled out complaints. Paperwork was distributed by hand to judges, jail intake officials, ID personnel and bail officials.

"Now you just enter it on the computer and you're done," said Pittsburgh homicide Detective Steve Hitchings.

City police Lt. Thomas Atkins says one area of concern is to make sure the system keeps private names and addresses of witnesses and victims in sensitive investigations.

"We're still concerned about how information relating to serious crimes is made public. We're trying to work out the differences," Atkins said.

Officers from smaller departments were spending more time at court than patrolling streets, said court administrator Ray Billotte, one of the system's creators.

The next step is to interface ASAP with the computer network used by district judges, Zappala said.

Police use access codes and connect to ASAP via laptops, at police stations or at one of the ASAP computer kiosks in City Court or Family Court, both Downtown.

"The system has surpassed anything we've ever used before (for) arraignment of people being processed through the jail," said jail Capt. David Hungerman, a corrections officer since 1975.

Since county programmers wrote the code and designed the interface, officials couldn't say how much the system cost.