This month, UPDATE adds a new section of fun stuff called "Police Picks." You'll find reviews of cop movies and books, plus tales of heroic police officers and dumb perps. Enjoy!
POLICE PICKS MOVIES BOOKS HEROES PERPS
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Metro wants
your patch!
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Metro would be
proud to display your department's patch
at our office. If you would like to put your department's patch on display please send it
to Metro at:
Metro Technology Services, Inc.
435 Devon Park Drive
Bldg 500, Suite 510
Wayne, PA 19087
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| Welcome new users! | |
Among the departments that have
recently installed
Visual Alert are:
Newport Borough PD Meshoppen PD
Edwardsville PD
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Contact Us
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metalert@metroalert.com
Toll free:
800-658-5716
Local:
610-296-7450
435 Devon Park Drive, Bldg 500, Suite 510,
Wayne PA 19087
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| Look for UPDATE every other month | |
We will send you news and Visual Alert updates in May, July, September and November.
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It's time for Spring Training!
Visual Alert users look forward to training each spring at a Metro Technology User Conference. But this year, users also can look forward to Spring Training. That's the theme for the 2012 conferences, and it will play out during the day with tailgate party food and snacks, baseball paraphernalia and prizes any Phillies or Pirates fan is sure to love.
Of course, Metro's annual one-day conferences will, as always, provide new information, small group discussions and support. If you plan to attend, please register online now or download a pdf registration form to fax, email or mail. Registration forms will not be mailed to users. The Metro User Conference dates and locations are:
Thursday March 22, 2012 at the Penn State Great Valley Conference Center in Malvern, Pa.
Friday March 30, 2012 at the Regional Learning Alliance (RLA) in Cranberry, Pa.
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Microsoft releases SQL Server 2012
Microsoft has released SQL Server 2012, which is available in three main editions: Enterprise, Business Intelligence and Standard. The Workgroup edition is no longer available under SQL Server 2012.
From our understanding, pricing for the actual server license should stay the same for SQL Standard Edition. Second, you will need to purchase the Client Access Licenses (CALs) separately. Pricing will not be confirmed until the end of March 2012. For more information please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/sql-2012-editions.aspx.
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Resolve issue between Avast Antivirus Software and Visual Alert Version 1
If you deploy the Avast Antivirus Software on any of your PCs, please note the most recent update is identifying the execution of the Visual Alert Version 1 program as a virus. It is blocking the execution of a DLL utilized in the encryption of your data.
Click here to create an exclusion that will allow Visual Alert to execute. For additional assistance please contact Avast Support.
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Coming soon for VA2 clients: Electronic filing of traffic citations with AOPC
AOPC has successfully completed the pilot Traffic Citation Electronic Filing project with CNET and is now prepared to begin working with additional agencies. This is great news for Version 2 clients. Those currently printing the citations from the car will soon be able to e-file them too. We hope to have this work completed by the end of this year's second quarter.
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Visual Alert Version 2
Update 2.11.1 available now
Version 2.11.1 is available for download. To download the update and the instructions for performing the update, click here. (Note: If you are a Chester County Department, please do not download the update without first contacting us.) Below are highlights of the modifications made in the release:
Citations
- Corrected the calculation of Age in Quick Forms.
- Updated Traffic Citation Rules and Obligations language.
Evidence
Juvenile Petition/Written Allegation
- Now produces a Subpoena Listing at the end of printing the statewide Juvenile Petition form.
Property
- Enabled the Add button on the Property form.
Incident
COMPSTAT
- Configured to allow for Grid based selections.
LEJIS
- Report that summarizes their data sharing selections instead of having to scroll through all of the screens to review their selections.
- Made the "Don't Share" and "CAUTION Flag" check boxes available to ALL users, not just those with LEJIS security.
Vehicles
- Can now perform SuperVehicle searches using a Business Name.
- Ensured that any modifications to an existing vehicle will be written to the SuperVehicle record.
- Reports>Vehicle Query - Searching by Owner now includes Business Name. Previously only First and Last Name were searchable.
Miscellaneous
- Corrected the "NO" option of when exiting Visual ALERT to make sure it doesn't close the user out of the program.
- Wanted Persons Report - Corrected the Date fields to include the option for Current Date, Display Calendar or Clear Value selection when you right click on the Date field.
- System Shutdown Utility - The Text Editor form for the Probable Cause on the Criminal Complaint now includes the timer control if the department is set to shutdown Visual ALERT after so many minutes of inactivity.
- Quick Entry Citations - Corrected the issue where all menu options would become unavailable except for Field Reporting while entering citations.
- Visual ALERT Explorer window - corrected the sizing and position saving issue.
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 Visual Alert Version 1
Update 1.16.727 available now
To download the update or to download the instructions for performing the update, click here. Below are the highlights of the modifications made in the release:
Incidents
- Corrected display of the Incident screen when using 800 X 600 resolution.
- Corrected the source of the occasional message "Option is currently under development" or "A serious internal error has occurred which has caused your Visual Alert session to become unstable."
- Confidential Information button now appears on the Persons screen when a business is entered.
Parking Tickets
- Corrected the printing of Offense Time and Issued Time when printing Citations
UCR Reporting
- Reporting of Homicide information has been corrected.
- Modified the month and year range to be unlimited.
Vehicles
- Corrected the occasional open file dialog box when opening the Vehicle screen
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Police Movie Pick
 Drive, Starring Ryan Gosling
Just out on DVD, Drive is a caper-gone-bad movie that is fueled by adrenaline piled onto more adreneline. It's a rush in every sense of the word, from the stylish high speed car chases to the take-no-prisoners prescription it offers for revenge on past wrongs. Drive stars Ryan Gosling as a stuntman, mechanic and getaway driver who gets sucked into a high stakes robbery orchestrated by some Very Bad Guys looking to recover a debt from a just released inmate. It's complicated, because Gosling's character has gotten sweet on the inmate's wife while he was in jail. But because he fears for her safety, he agrees to be the wheel man for a heist conceived to raise the needed cash. Needless to say, things go wrong, and the movie grows increasingly violent with each turn of the plot. People who love fast cars and vengeance will get more than enough of both by film's end. And if thugs are your thing, Albert Brooks and the creepy Ron Perlman turn in great performances. |
Police Book Pick
 Raylan
By Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard is one of America's great crime writers, and at age 86 he's still at it. His new novel Raylan is his 45th, and the title character is also at the center of the FX crime show Justified. Raylan is Raylan Givens, a U.S. marshal known for his quick draw, one liners and cowboy hat. Raylan has had bit parts in other Leonard books, Pronto and Riding the Rap, and in the short novel Fire in the Hole, which inspired the TV show. He got a book of his own because Leonard liked Justified so much he made Raylan the hero. This time around Raylan is tracking Kentucky dope dealers who have branched out from meth and marijuana into trafficking human organs. The book is short and punchy, with the great dialogue you'd expect from a guy who once rode with a homicide squad in Detroit to learn how detectives talk. And Leonard's still funny. When a coal company thug wants to take Raylan outside to teach him respect, our hero answers: "I'll meet you out here after. Practice falling down till I get here."
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Police Hero Pick
When they go above and beyond ...
An officer in Boston this February responded to a call in a neighborhood to find a woman threatening to jump off a roof. Officers were trying to talk her down when she leaned forward and lost her balance. Officer Robert Robichaud, who was stationed below, caught her before she hit the ground. "I just saw her lean forward head first, and she was coming down," he told reporters. "I just threw ... myself under her so, just to kinda like break her fall." Robichaud was treated at a hospital for a strained shoulder but was not seriously injured. The woman was treated and released. (Source: WHDH-TV)
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Police Perp Pick
When they make our job easy ...
A man was arrested in North Carolina and charged with two felony counts after attempting to use a $1 million bill to pay for stuff at Walmart. According to a police report, 53-year-old Michael Anthony Fuller approached the register with $476 worth of merchandise and handed the cashier a $1 million bill. He told the employee that the note was real, but not surprisingly the staffer didn't take his word for it and called police. By the way, the largest denomination ever printed was $100,000, which was issued by the U.S. Treasury in 1934-1935 for use by Federal Reserve banks. The biggest bill today is the $100 bill. (Source: Winston-Salem Journal and thedailywh.at website.)
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Police Photo Pick
When it is worth 1,000 words ...
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