Residents of small communities could be better protected with a law enforcement communications system developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
ORNL computer software engineer Garvin Morris, a city council member and police commissioner in Harriman, Tennessee, says the system would improve communications between different law enforcement agencies.
"This gives the advantage of having a system that local law enforcement can come in on a day to day basis and check and see what other municipalities in the area have been doing to help solve crime."
Morris says law enforcement agencies in rural areas would especially benefit.
"Local law enforcement agencies are often dependent upon paper copies to get information from. Having a system that will allow them to input the data into a database of this magnitude will help them share the information through different agencies across the counties and across the State of Tennessee."
The Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police recently endorsed the system.