New tools for FBI long-used in Florida

The FBI, which doesn't yet use e-mail, announced that agents would get laptops and Net access to work on cases.

By LUCY MORGAN, Times Tallahassee Bureau Chief

© St. Petersburg Times
published June 1, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- When the FBI announced this week that it is giving computers to agents to surf the Internet for clues, it was stunning news to many Florida law enforcement officers, who have been using computers and surfing the Net for years.

Agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have long been equipped with laptop computers and routinely use a statewide database to track information on crimes and the people who commit them. Even small-town sheriff's deputies use e-mail and surf the Net for information.

State agents in Pensacola or Palm Beach or any other Florida city can log onto the FDLE computer system to pull out information on anybody or anything that has come to the attention of the agency.

They also can search the Internet for clues or tap into a financial network created to pursue drug smuggling and money laundering.

All are tools denied the average FBI agent. This week FBI director Robert Mueller announced that he would give agents tools that are commonplace in state and local law enforcement.

For the first time, FBI agents won't have to demonstrate that an Internet search is part of a criminal investigation. They didn't have computers or access to much of the other technology routinely available. They don't even use e-mail.

FDLE director James T. "Tim" Moore praised the move. He persuaded legislators to spend more than $40-million the past few years upgrading and updating the state's law enforcement network.

Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter heads a regional anti-terrorist task force and learned of the FBI's technology gap "when the FBI agent assigned to us had no computer, no laptop and no Nextel phone."

The FDLE criminal justice network was quickly converted to an antiterrorism tool after Sept. 11. The financial network that tracks money laundering and drug dealing produced the names of everyone ever associated with the addresses used by terrorists who trained at Florida flight schools.

On the night of Sept. 11, state officials set up a command post and communicated with every law enforcement agency in the state. They post information on a Web site reserved for law enforcement and put out a daily intelligence summary.

"Threatnet," the network approved by legislators in a special session shortly after Sept. 11, is available on a secure network already set up for law enforcement.

When someone phones in a tip, it goes on the network and surfaces as an unexplored complaint a few days later if no one followed it up, says Phil Ramer, special agent in charge of intelligence for FDLE.

"The biggest issue is to make sure everything is followed up," Ramer added.

Florida is trying to win federal funding of a network linking systems in Florida and nine other big states to help track terrorists.

The FDLE routinely shares its information with the FBI but has no way of knowing what becomes of it because all communication with the federal agency has long been a one-way street.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright