City Touts New Computer System

"Orlando has spent 13 years compiling and feeding information into a computer system that has become so powerful and sophisticated it could be a featured player in one of those hard-to-believe futuristic thrillers Hollywood continually churns out. Here’s an example of the system’s far-reaching capabilities: With just a few keystrokes, Orlando’s chief code-enforcement officer, Mike Rhodes, can call up the address of a home -- complete with a map, directions, a history of the property, including any outstanding fines, and a layout of the house and lot. Orlando police officers soon will be able to do the same from laptop computers being assigned to their cruisers. They’ll also be able to pull up a map of the entire 105-square-mile city, then zone all the way down to a specific address. If they want, they can even watch a video showing the streets on which they will ride."