State opens North Country crime-analysis center in Malone

MALONE, N.Y. — New York State on Wednesday formally opened the North Country Crime Analysis Center at the Franklin County Public Safety Building in Malone.

The facility will serve five North Country counties and expand the state’s network of intelligence and data-sharing centers to the Canadian and Vermont borders, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news release.

The center is a joint venture between the state and 12 law-enforcement agencies in Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Clinton, Essex, and Franklin counties.

It’s the newest of seven centers that the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services supports in partnership with police agencies and prosecutors’ offices in 13 counties, the office added.

Other centers are located in Onondaga, Broome, Erie, Monroe, Niagara, and Albany counties.

The state says it spends about $5.5 million annually on personnel and technology to support the crime-analysis center network. 

The North Country Crime Analysis Center serves an area of more than 9,400 square miles that borders Canada.

It includes the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, which straddles ‎Northeastern New York’s border with Quebec and Ontario. 

The center provides data and intelligence to law-enforcement agencies so they can “better secure” the border.

It also seeks to “improve cross-jurisdictional cooperation and information sharing” with federal, state, local, and tribal agencies handling criminal investigations, including cases involving contraband smuggling, terrorism, and drug and human trafficking.

The North Country center’s staff uses advanced technology to access and synthesize data and information.

It includes reported crimes; arrest information; parole and probation records to provide that intelligence to officers and investigators in the field to solve crime. 

The center’s staff can also map crime “hot spots” so law-enforcement agencies can “more effectively” deploy staff and assist prosecutors who are preparing for trial, according to the release.

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services is a “multi-function,” criminal-justice support agency with a variety of responsibilities. 

They include law-enforcement training; collection and analysis of statewide crime data; maintenance of criminal-history information and fingerprint files; administrative oversight of the state’s DNA databank, in partnership with the New York State Police; funding and oversight of probation and community-correction programs; administration of federal and state criminal-justice funds; support of criminal justice-related agencies across the state; and administration of the state’s sex-offender registry.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com