Middlesex County is finally laying to rest a technological dinosaur.

The county's old mainframe computer, which uses punch cards to spit out a most-wanted list of fugitives each week and keeps records on criminals, is being unplugged.

In its place, county lawmen helped design a computer program that promises instant access to fugitives' names, their aliases, digital mugshots and fingerprints.

Freeholder Christopher Rafano, liaison to the county's law enforcement agencies, said the system will enable prosecutor's office, the sheriff's office and ultimately municipal police departments to retrieve, collect and distribute criminal information.

Khalid Anjum, the county director of information management, said the new system cost $721,600 and was designed by CSI Technology Group of Edison.

Anjum said the antiquated mainframe, which once handled all the county's financial calculations as well as land use records, has slowly been retired and that the law enforcement uses are the last to go.

The county bought its original computer in the 1960s.

The prosecutor's office tested the new program last week and the sheriff's office is expected to be up and running with the new system by mid-March.

Deputy Chief John Mumber of the prosecutor's office said his investigators are eager to work on the new system, since the old computer's most-wanted lists were sometimes out of date before they were even distributed. The weekly lists can contain more than 2,000 names.

Mumber said it's imperative for law enforcement to update the list quickly and on a continuing basis. It was impossible to make changes effectively with the old keypunch system, he said.

Anjum said the new system also offers security because access will be limited to law enforcement personnel.

Sgt. Bill Paglione, deputy commander of the prosecutor's task force, said the county has been shopping for a new system since 1997. "This is going to be a tremendous benefit. We've been waiting for this a long time," he said.

Capt. Michael Barbieri, the project coordinator in the sheriff's office, said that while the system is limited to county agencies now, the goal is to have a computer in every patrol car in every Middlesex County town so police can quickly click into the database.

For more information, please contact:

CSI Technology Group
330 Mac Lane
Keasbey, NJ 08832
U.S.A
T: 732-346-0200
F: 732-346-0209
Email: sales@csitech.com