"The Polk County Sheriff's Office is doing amazing things with law-enforcement technology," said Bill Ward, director of information technology for the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Ward spoke today at the University of South Florida Polytechnic's Information Technology Colloquium.

Ward discussed how technology is changing the face of public safety and law enforcement. According to Ward, new advances in software -- such as automated license plate recognition, facial recognition, and automated vehicle location - are bringing Polk County to the forefront in integrated law enforcement.   A major imitative involves Omega crime-view software, which allows immediate query and notification of crime trends for data sharing with all local law-enforcement agencies. 

Polk County is attempting a level of law enforcement that is unrivaled anywhere else in the country, Ward said. "Under Sheriff Grady Judd, the sheriff's department has become a progressive and visionary agency. We know of no other law-enforcement agency that shares real-time data with other agencies. Doing so has improved office safety and public safety countywide."

Sponsored by USF's IT department, headquartered at USF Polytechnic, the IT colloquium series, which began in 2002, features USF Polytechnic faculty, community members and visiting professors. It aims to expand the scope of traditional computer science education into a broader set of disciplines more in tune with the needs of modern society and business.