Monday, August 6, 2012

Total Un-Enforcement

Back in 2008 the city applied for and received TWO grants to buy a NEW RECORDS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM called Total Enforcement, that could link every police car to the 911 system as well as the police station.  The first grant totaling $500,000 from Gaming money, then in 2011 the Mayor announced the second grant from Department of Justice's Community-Oriented Policing Service technology program for $300,000 to by a Records Management System. 

This system should interface with 911 and other law enforcement agencies. However most other local cities, and municipalities use "Visual Alert® Records Management" system, and they all interface together.  Furthermore, Total Enforcement comes preloaded with all New York data that must be removed before city police could add anything of PA!

To date the city has spent $526,616 on equipment and training. The rest ($273,384) God only knows, but the problem with this "NEW RECORDS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM" is that even though the city paid over a half a million dollars for this system it is not working correctly as of today, and it would seem the city could care less! 

City spokesman Drew Mc-Laugh-lin said officials are working with Frontier Communications, the city’s Wi-Fi provider, to address the connectivity issues and expect to have the problems resolved in the next few months.

“The strength of the signal is intermittent,” Mc-Laugh-lin said. “If the Wi-Fi is coming in and out, that’s not reliable. We’re trying to solidify it so there’s never an issue.”

Mc-Laugh-lin said officials believe the problem can be resolved by attaching an antenna to the cruisers, that would strengthen the signal. The city is in negotiations with Frontier regarding that matter.

  • Just a thought, but if Frontier could make it work since 2008 perhaps it’s time to drop them!
  • Also we all know just how fast technology changes, that being said would this still be the best system in today's market?

“It’s one of those things with their gear and how they do their job in driving the vehicle,” Mc-Laugh-lin said. “It was an unforeseen complication we didn’t know until it was installed.”

  • It’s like seeing the King texting at council meetings. It’s just one of those things with his gear and how he doesn’t do his job!

Officer Phil Myers, president of the police officers union, said officers are anxious to get the system running. “It will definitely make it a lot easier to do a report on the road instead of having to come back,” Myers said.

  • Don’t hold your breath Phil it’s only been in the works since 2008!!!


More to the Story:

History of Total Enforcement in Luzerne County:

"Between March 2006 andOctober 2007 - Former Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, Deputy Chief Clerk Bill Brace, housing authority board member William Maguire and Human Resources Director Douglas Richards, who were incarcerated for corruption were involved in attempting to purchase a law enforcement records management system from two former New York City police officers named Grub and Luongo. Maguire, who was a law-enforcement consultant to the county government at the time, told the FBI that one of the former New York officers paid county officials thousands of dollars during a trip to New York to discuss an initiative to develop a county-wide computerized crime-reporting system."

This system is called "Total Computer A.K.A Total Enforcement". By the way the county never bought it, but the city did.


One of the two former New York City police officers who formed the corporation, William Grub, wined and dined county officials on trips to Manhattan and gave each of them New York City Police Department key chains attached to small boxes stuffed with up to $4,000, according to a pre-sentence report prepared by federal probation officials in Richards' case. Click here, Documents: Ex-county officials received gifts from ex-NYC officers 


Just another coincidence?

Now I call your attention to the missing credit card statements that the city claimed never existed, but the average Joe obtained via subpoena. In the event you forgot click here for They do exist!

The August 2006 statement of for former cityadministrator J.J. Murphy shows 3 rooms were charged at PARK CENTRAL HOTEL FD NEW YORK NY, which by the way was also the same hotel that Former Luzerne County Human Resources Director Douglas Richards stayed at when he went to NYC (click here to see county bill)After digging further, Joe obtained receipts concerning this charge. That shows who went to NYC.

On that trip:
  • J.J. Murphy
  • King Tommy
  • Police Chief Gerry Dessoye
  • Police Officer Matthew Stash

In 2008 - A grant totaling $500,000 was given to the City of Wilkes-Barre from "Casino Gaming Money" for a county-wide law enforcement records management system. "Total Enforcement". Click here for 2008 State Awards Gaming Money

May 2011 - "Mayor Thomas M. Leighton announced Tuesday, May 10, the start of the next technological evolution of the Wilkes-Barre Police Department.

The Records Management System [RMS] funded by a $300,000 RMS grant secured by the city will transition the department to a completely electronic records system." "Total Enforcement". Click here for 2011 City Press Release


Total Grants: $800,000
City Spent:      $526,616
Missing:           $273,384

  • Bids??? Oh boy... who said bids? 
  • To date citizens have requested copies of the bids relating to Total Enforcement, and the city has not complied!!!!

This trip seems awfully coincidental to the trips of former Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak don’t ya think?

Especially considering the city bought the very same system that the former county commissioner got in trouble for attempting to buy through the Bribe Process, not to be confused with a Bid Process, which by the way was not followed either.

Breakdown obtained from Right to Know requests:

TOTAL ENFORCEMENT- Police Records Management System

3/09/10 Quote from DELL - $394,665.00
1st Phase- $ 95,845.45
2nd Phase - $ 289,819.56 Training
3rd Phase - $ 9,000.00

Checks with invoices received for system:
DELL
$ 22,544.97
$ 13,990.14
$ 162,097.25
$ 292,899.55
= $ 491,531.91
AND

Invoices received for system with NO checks included:
DELL
$ 1,878.22
$ 745.36
= $494,155.49

Checks with invoices received for system:
LIGHTSPEED
6/29/ 11 $ 9,000.00
FRONTIER
6/27/11 $ 24,820.00
Are these yearly fees ?
The city also pays a Licensing fee yearly.
L-TRON- Barcode Scanner
$ 1,264.40

Included in with invoices received for system:
3/16/10 For Cruisers ( NOT BEING USED) as of today.
Computer Mounts
5- Impala -$ 4,054.20
10- Impala- $ 8,054.30
1- Caprice/ Crown Vic - $ 805.43
2- Durango- $ 1,612.64
Installation fee for 18 cruiser laptop mounts - $8,282.16
12 Laptops for cars -$ 15,698.88
Total for cars = $ 38,507.61

Wake Up Wilkes Barre

Source:

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Installing antennas on police vehicles will prove to be a complete waste of effort (and more taxpayer dollars).

    The root cause of the technical issue here is NOT on the receiving end, but rather the transmission.

    If Leighton had chosen to leverage a solution that used WiMAX technology (which, at the time, Intel would have contributed 50% of the design & implementation costs) instead of the much less-powerful WiFi, the range of the transmission signal would be measured in miles . . . not hundreds of yards.

    Another clear indication of the ineptitude of our city "leaders". Leighton was informed of this as far back as 2005, yet chose to ignore it.

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    Replies
    1. Just to be fair to King, would Intel have contributed to his campaign?

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  3. Put this information out to the press. Both the Citizens Voice, and the Times Leader could reach more readers than on this website.

    You have to wonder how much more crap the public will tolerate before they say enough !!!!

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    Replies
    1. Both editors subscribe to Wake Up Wilkes Barre, and now have all the info as written, so we would hope the also conduct an investigation!!! Thank you

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