Hi-tech HQ

I love mysteries and crime shows. If I didn’t, I’d spend even less time with my fiancée than I do, because she catches every episode of the original CSI and stops clicking every time she comes across Cold Case Files. I’m into The Wire and Poirot, but there’s still enough common ground for happy viewing together.

Anyway, I mention this so you understand why I so happily accepted Sheriff Perry Reniff’s invitation to tour his headquarters in Oroville. (I didn’t check out the coroner part of his operation; that falls wholly in Dr. Amy’s purview.) I feel a bit safer for the journey, having met some of the professionals under the sheriff’s jurisdiction and seeing technology at their disposal.

Most impressive was the dispatch center. Have you ever watched 24? I’ve caught it enough to see CTU’s central command. The dispatch center reminded me of that. Dispatchers work in a circular office pod featuring four-monitor computer workstations. At their fingertips are “E911” and “BJADS”—crime-fighting programs you won’t watch on TV.

Enhanced 911 allows dispatchers to zero in on the location of a distress call and punch up maps, owners’ identities, criminal activity and gun registrations at the address and in the neighborhood. Butte Justice Agency Data Sharing—two years in the works after decades of discussion—consolidates warrants and documents from across the county into one database, saving deputies and dispatchers valuable time.

Evidence technicians also have charged into the 21st century, streamlining and modernizing their storage facility (as much as possible in what’s essentially a large metal shed). Drying lockers and industrial-strength coolers preserve evidence. Sealed boxes have rendered the wall used for hanging firearms mostly bare. Techs return or destroy about twice as many items as they take in, freeing space via painstaking investigation.

Reniff showcased Records and Civil Division with equal pride. In all, it was an enlightening two hours at HQ. Hmmm, “HQ” … could be a hit!