Police Officer of the Year Credits CapWIN for Success

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 27, 2007

CONTACT:
Carly Keane
301-403-4601
ckeane@umd.edu

COLLEGE PARK – This year's 2007 Maryland Chiefs of Police "Exceptional Police Performance Award" winner, Pfc. Bob Riggio, acknowledged the role of the Capital Wireless Information Net (CapWIN) in his success.

Riggio credited his award to the services and technology provided by the CapWIN program, which enables emergency responders to communicate real-time across agencies and to perform on-the-spot searches in multiple databases while investigating crimes and other incidents.

"Because of CapWIN, I am able to communicate with officers from other jurisdictions, which makes my job a lot easier," said Riggio, an officer with the police department of Hampstead, Md.

According to Hampstead Police Capt. Jay Gribbin, 40 of Riggio's arrests were made when the initial traffic stop followed a CapWIN search.

"CapWIN is a marvelous addition to our law enforcement efforts, not only here in Hampstead, but throughout the state," Gribbin stated. "I'm grateful to CapWIN for making our officers' difficult jobs a little easier."

CapWIN Executive Director Tom Henderson congratulated Riggio.

"It is extremely satisfying to see CapWIN contributing to the productivity of the Maryland law enforcement community and to be a contributing part of Pfc. Riggio's outstanding accomplishment," Henderson said.

This is the second year in a row that Riggio has won the Exceptional Police Performance Award. He was named the 2006 Hampstead Lions Club’s Officers of the Year as well.

About CapWIN
The Capital Wireless Information Net (CapWIN) is a regional Public Safety and Transportation Coalition supported by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT) at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering. Developed and governed by a regional group of public safety and transportation officials, the CapWIN system includes an application suite enabling: 1) incident coordination across agencies, regions, disciplines and at all levels of government; 2) secure one-to-one and group messaging as well as a skill-based searchable directory of individual first responders; and 3) access to operational data/resources, including regional transportation data and multiple state/federal law enforcement criminal databases, driver’s license photos, state and federal mug shots of wanted persons, violent gang members, and registered sex offenders.

As of today, approximately 3000 first responders from 69 agencies in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia can now access the CapWIN system.

For more information regarding CapWIN, please contact Carly Keane at 301.403.4601 or at ckeane@umd.edu. Please visit the CapWIN website at www.capwin.org and the CapWIN Training Website at http://www.capwintraining.org.

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