Police officers forward patrol in A...

Police officers forward patrol in Amesbury, Mass., are looking for more than speeding motorists. They are typing license plate numbers of passing vehicles into laptop computer in search of drivers with expired licenses, registration and insurance violations and outstanding criminal warrants.

When a quick scan of local and national law enforcement databases reveals a violation, it flashes the information in succession officers' computer screens so they can take immediate action.

This is the strange face of crime-fighting in Amesbury, a city with 24 full-time police officers and a fluctuating population of about 15000 population

Instead of relying forward two-way radio calls to busy dispatchers for limited information forward a driver, officers can now tap into a wireless computer network to memorize a complete motor vehicle and criminal history onward their laptops in seconds.

The department credits this recently made known computer system with helping it double its warrant arrests