After the Centre County Board of Commissioners' Jan. 7 approval, local police departments are well on their way to having full installation of JNet, one of the state's latest and perhaps most powerful crime fighting tools.

JNet, which is short for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Justice Network, is a secure network that links government agencies all over the state and allows information on an individual's background to be accessed almost immediately by certified users.

Information from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections as well as the Board of Probation and Parole, driver's license photos, mug shots and criminal histories are among the data that will be available to police.

Gene Lauri, the county's director of criminal justice planning, said an existing electronic infrastructure between the county and police departments will make accessing JNet a simpler process.

"It's being installed in different locations of the police department," State College Police Sgt. John Wilson said. "In the last couple of weeks, we've really been getting it up and running."

Bruce Kline, assistant director for Penn State Police Services, said his department has had access to the network since March of last year.

"We use it every day in a lot of situations," Kline said. "If we are investigating certain individuals, it gives us an advantage we didn't have before."

He said JNet is not a case of government acting as 'Big Brother.' "Nothing we're accessing wasn't available before," Kline said. "JNet offers the same information much more quickly. Before, submitting a request for information could take days. Now, we get a full history back immediately."

Kline, who was the JNet administrative coordinator with the county, said the system has different user levels to access available information, with police officers having the highest clearance.

"Each officer, before certified, has to go through training and a background check," Kline said. "It's a very high-secure system."

A digital signature is required to access Jnet, and all users will be required to pass a certification test. Kline said about one-third of his department is currently authorized to access the network. "Eventually, at least all police officers will have access," he said.

Wilson said his department is looking forward to using the abilities that JNet will provide. "It broadens our ability to do our jobs by making information more available," he said.