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ISR FleetTrack AVL System Plays Key Role in Convicting Murderer Automatic Vehicle Location System Emerges as a Unique Crime-Fighting Tool for State Police and other Law Enforcement Agencies A man accused of murdering his nine-year-old daughter has been convicted of the crime, thanks in part to evidence collected when an automatic vehicle location (AVL) system manufactured by Integrated Systems Research (ISR) Corp. of Englewood Cliffs, N.J. led police to the body. William B. Jackson, age 34, was the prime suspect in the disappearance of his daughter, Valiree. The police suspected that she had been murdered but were unable to find her body. Acting on a hunch, in October 1999 the police attained a court order that allowed them to place special transmitters made by ISR on Jackson's impounded 1995 Ford pickup and 1985 Honda Accord, said Don McCabe, detective for the investigative support unit of the Spokane County Sheriff's Department. ISR FleetTrack uses the GPS (Global Positioning System), a satellite-based radio positioning system that provides three-dimensional positioning information, velocity readings and time information to show the location of a fleet of vehicles and their movements. The system also includes a silent position monitor that enables communication between a vehicle and a dispatcher through a CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) wireless network. ISR FleetTrack continuously records data of a vehicle's operation, including speed and location. It also notifies dispatchers when a vehicle deviates from a planned route, leaves a specified zone or is standing still for more than five minutes (or any predetermined time period). The data can be played back at any time. "The use of global positioning systems is becoming more prevalent as a crime-fighting tool as large police departments and state police step up their war on drugs and other criminal activity," McCabe said. "It's a useful tool that can save manpower on surveillance work." McCabe said his department received three ISR FleetTrack evaluation units at about the same time police impounded Jackson's vehicles. The units were made available through the U.S. Army Drug Office Technology Transfer program. "We had applied for the equipment to assist in fighting local drug crime," McCabe recalled. In exchange for help in assessing product effectiveness, the program makes all types of technology-based equipment, including body microphones and infrared cameras, available to local police departments McCabe explained that after ISR FleetTrack transmitters were installed on Jackson's pickup and Honda, they were tracked by the system's software installed on a Gateway 350 desktop computer and a Gateway laptop that was equipped with a cell phone modem so officers in the field could participate, said McCabe. Tracking Jackson's vehicles "was a shot in the dark to just see where he was going and what he was doing," McCabe said. "It's a very useful tool." The ISR FleetTrack was set to record changes in movement every 15 seconds. It tracked Jackson on visits to his brother and a girlfriend. "The big break came when ISR FleetTrack followed Jackson to an old logging road where he used to hunt with his father," McCabe said. Using the unit as a guide, police searched the area around the logging road. "We found the girl's body in a grave within 50 feet of where we parked," he said. On Nov. 14, 2000, William B. Jackson, 34, was sentenced to 55 years in prison. |