LAPD's first-of-its-kind partnership with the FBI will place sought-after homicide case information a click away for detectives, who sometimes spend weeks tracking down a file's location, reports the LA Times. When the database is complete, investigators will be able to search any aspect of a "murder book," including license plate numbers and gang monikers.
First, the department plans to digitize more than 4,500 files from the southern part of the city — long the deadliest — between 1990 and 2010. Eventually, cases from the entire city will be included. Officials plan to open the doors to a brick-and-mortar library where families can go for answers and detectives can check out files.
"No case will be lost," said Tom McMullen, a recently retired LAPD captain, who oversaw the group of detectives who handle the area covered in the database.
McMullen called the database a "one-stop shop" that will make it easier to piece together cases involving multiple murders, such as the Grim Sleeper serial killer.