Busted

WISE, Va. – Chief Scott Brooks pledged to tackle illegal drug activity and other crimes when he was hired to head the St. Paul Police Department nearly three months ago.

A new mobile data system that began operating Wednesday in Wise County gives him an extra tool to do so, he said.(LINK)

This new tool is called Busted. It is a wireless accessible database of convicted felons "The program lets them check if a suspect waived search rights as part of a plea agreement with the Wise County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office."  No search warrant would be needed. That is saving time and effort.

"This is valuable, valuable information for an officer to have," said Ron Elkins, Wise County’s commonwealth’s attorney.

He noted that BUSTED only contains information on people who entered plea agreements with his office. The program does not violate any person’s rights, he said..............................."If we’re having a problem out of a certain individual or hear they are dealing drugs, we can check to see if they signed a waiver," Brooks said. "If they have signed a waiver, we can walk up to them and just say, ‘I’m here to pat you down.’"

Interesting tool indeed.

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