POLICE PICKS
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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:
MetroAlert
435 Devon Park Drive
Bldg 500, Suite 510
Wayne, PA 19087
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| Welcome new users! | |
Among departments that have recently installed Visual Alert:
Dunmore Borough PD
Cheswick Borough PD
Centerville Borough PD
Throop 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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New MetroAlert website adds online resources and support for customers
MetroAlert has launched a new website, with a revamped Customer Area designed to provide additional online resources and support for users of our law enforcement software. The URL is the same as always: www.metroalert.com.
In the new Customer Area, you can view the latest Software Updates as well as a list highlighting the modifications that were made. Customers can also download any update. We have begun adding commonly asked questions and the answers to a Software User FAQs section. You can view a recording of the first in our new series of customer Webinars, all of which are initially offered live so that participants can ask questions and get answers right away. Coming soon: Training Videos that clearly demonstrate how to use a specific feature of the software.
We invite you to check the website often for News and Announcements. We also welcome your suggestions for improvements to the Customer Area. Please email your suggestions to news@metroalert.com.
 | | To enter the Customer Area from the home page, click the yellow Customer Login button at top right. |
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Visit our Booth at International Chiefs of Police Conference October 19-23
MetroAlert will demonstrate its industry-leading police software products at the 120th Annual International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference. IACP 2013, which includes a Law Enforcement Education and Technology Exposition, will take place October 19-23 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
The Exposition will be the largest ever for law enforcement education and technology, with more than 750 companies showcasing products and services. Visitors to MetroAlert's booth #1063 will see the latest in police Records Management Systems, as well as fully integrated software for Computer Aided Dispatch, Resource Management, Advanced Information Sharing and Geographic Systems. The Exhibit Hall will be open October 20 and 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and October 22 from 10 a.m to 2 p.m.
Thousands of delegates are expected to attend IACP 2013, representing local, state, county, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies. During the five-day conference they will address critical law enforcement issues, advance their knowledge and equip their operations for the future.
 | | Our new trade show display highlights top reasons law enforcement agencies choose MetroAlert police software. |
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Visual Alert Version 2
Update 2.16.0 available now
Version 2.16.0 is available for download. To download the update and the instructions for performing the update, click here. Below are highlights of the modifications made in the release. For a complete list of enhancements, improvements and modifications in this release, go to the HELP Menu in your Visual ALERT 2® software.
New Features:
Update 2.16.0 delivers a potent new feature for the Alert Server and some customer inspired enhancements. This update also includes an automated report for an Arrest List.
Modus Operandi
A Modus Operandi (MO) feature has been added to the Visual Alert RMS and Alert Server. Criminals can have distinct patterns to their unlawful acts. Whether it's fleeing the scene on bicycle or leaving no fingerprints by wearing gloves, Visual Alert™ now allows for the tracking of these details making the Alert Server a powerful investigative tool for solving cases. Those agencies connected to an Alert Server will see a new folder in the Explorer Tree when adding an Incident containing a primary UCR code between 0100 to 2699. The MO form contains 10 categories. The user only needs to check the values that pertain to the case. These categories are then sent to the Alert Server when the incident information is sent. The Data Interrogator (DI) screen has been modified and now includes an MO tab. Searching for the White, 5'10" to 6', Male with blue eyes, who displays a silver handgun and flees the scene by bicycle is as simple as completing the appropriate fields on the Person tab and the MO tab.
Increased Number of Results
Modifications were made to the communications between your server and the Alert Server to support up to 500 results from a search. To adjust for the allowed number of returns from the Alert Server please go to Utilities, LEJIS and Alert Server Filters and change the value in the field "Maximum # results to return."
Summary/Narrative Filters
In keeping with the business rules already established for how incidents, persons, property and vehicle information is shared we have added a filter for Summary/Narrative information. This parameter is found under Utilities, LEJIS and Alert Server Filters. Checking the item Summary/Narrative allows Main and Supplemental narratives to be shared to the Alert Server.
In conjunction with this change the "Don't Share" checkbox has been added to the Main Narrative and Supplemental Narrative forms of the Incident. You can now use the "Don't Share" checkbox to override the sharing of the Summary. Example: You have an on-going investigation. You want the details to go to the Alert Server but you do not want any investigative information written in the supplement to go. Checking the Don't Share checkbox in the upper left hand corner of the Supplement form will keep that information from going to the Alert Server.
Automated Arrest List
This new feature has been added to give a department an automated report for arrests in a given time period. This is a frequently asked question and replaces a department having to create a custom query. This report does not include citations since there is already a separate report for citations.
- Location Reports Menu>Administrative Reports>Arrest List.
- Detail Report - This report will display Offender, Incident Number, Arrest Date and Charges. The arrests are grouped by Officer and then a total count of arrests is done for each Officer. The end of report will have a total count for the entire department.
- Summary Report - This report will display a count of arrests for each Officer without displaying specific information of the arrest. There will also be a total department count at the end of the report.
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 Visual Alert Version 1Update 1.16.739 available now
Version 1.16.739 is available for download. To download the update and the instructions for performing the update, click here. |
Police Movie Picks
The Last Stand
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
 "I'll be back," Arnold Schwarzenegger famously declared in The Terminator way back in 1984. In The Last Stand he's back in another way, after eight years as the "Governator" of California.
The Last Stand is Schwarzenegger's first featured role after politics, and as the center of mayhem, he reminds viewers what they had been missing while he was away. It's a marvelous shoot-'em-up with Schwarzenegger playing a small-town sheriff in Arizona who is taking down an escaped Mexican drug lord.
As in other Arnold movies, there is plenty of bang for the buck in The Last Stand, especially in the climactic scenes as Sheriff Ray Owens and his misfit allies lock and load to block drug czar Gabriel Cortez from reaching the border. Many rounds are fired, and Arnold grapples with his victim mano a mano in the end, but there also are lots of one-liners, sly asides and inside jokes about being old and creaky.
Schwarzenegger doesn't pretend to be buff and 30 - he's 66 after all - and that's part of the charm. In the end, though, he does smack that bad guy down and bring him in. And did we mention the machine gun mounted on the back of the school bus?
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Police Book Pick
Light of the World
By James Lee Burke
Light of the World is James Lee Burke's 20th Dave Robicheaux novel and once again, it demonstrates the staying power of that Louisiana deputy sheriff. This time, he's taking a road trip to Montana's Big Sky country, but not surprisingly evil soon finds him. His daughter Alafair is nearly killed by an arrow while hiking on a trail, and then she thinks she sees a creepily familiar face in town - convicted sadist and serial killer Asa Surrette. Alafair had interviewed Surrette in jail and had written a series of damning articles connecting him to other possible crimes. Surrette is supposed to have died in a prison transport van crash. But Alafair, and her dad, are not so sure and they soon get their worst fears confirmed. As in his other Robicheaux novels, Burke mixes compelling storytelling with stylish writing, and again he ruminates extensively on why some people pursue evil and how many forms it takes. Along the way, Deputy Robicheaux comes up against powerful local interests, inept or corrupt police and a sense that in many places the game is rigged in favor of the powerful. Add in one of Burke's most formidable villains, and a casualty list that touches almost everyone, and you have a story that's very hard to put down.
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Police Hero Pick
When they go above and beyond ...
 In most cases, a vacation is a vacation, but sometimes it can turn into a job. Especially if you're a police officer, when there is never such a thing as being completely off duty. Take the case of Corporal Justin Rogers. He was heading home from a vacation in Hawaii, working his way through security with his family. Suddenly, he heard a crash behind him, and when he turned around he saw a woman whaling away at a female security officer, who was trying unsuccessfully to subdue her attacker. Back-up for the guard was nowhere in sight, and everyone standing in line seemed frozen in place. Then Rogers' police instinct kicked. A wrestler in high school, he leaped a short Plexiglas wall and got his arm around the assailant's head. In seconds, he had one of the fastest take-downs of his career, pinning the unruly woman to the ground. "I'm a cop!" he yelled to the security officers running behind him and he threw up his free hand. Then he asked for handcuffs and arrested the woman. Rogers, an officer with the Pinole, California, force with 11 years of experience, doesn't remember what went through his head when he jumped into action. "It's almost instant - like a switch turning off and on - recognizing when a situation is about to escalate," he told the PoliceOne website. "We call it our Spidey sense."
To see a video of Corporal Rogers' airport takedown, click here.
(Source: www.policeone.com)
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Police Perp Pick
When they make our job easy ...
 In the world of petty crime, there is dumb, and then there is DUMB. Tempe, Arizona, police got to see capital letter DUMB not long ago in an incident that still has them shaking their heads. It all started around 2 a.m. on a Tuesday when a Tempe officer pulled over to finish up a report. While he was dotting all the I's, he felt a jolt and heard a strange sound coming from his squad car. He jumped out and found that his rear passenger tire had been slashed and a 24-year-old named Ashton Powers was casually walking away, a knife still in his hand. The officer caught up with Powers and asked him about it. Powers admitted he slashed the tire, telling the officer by way of explanation that "he didn't see anyone inside." That, obviously, was no justification, so the officer got to make one of the easiest collars ever. "I've never known this to happen to an officer," Tempe Police Sgt. Michael Pooley said later. "It blew me away. I don't know what this guy was thinking. It's a fully marked police car ... the officer was inside with the air conditioning on and you could hear the car running. It still didn't stop him. You know, this guy isn't very smart at all." True that.
(Source: ABC15.com / Scripps Media)
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Police Photo Pick
When it is worth 1,000 words ...
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Did you have to go there?
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