Please see the latest update on the Law Enforcement Data Sharing Consortium. Diane Finneran Administrative Assistant to Joe Mantilla, Manager Legislative and Government Affairs Orange County Sheriff's Office (407) 254-7015 Data sharing gets easier for area police departments   By MARK I. JOHNSON  Staff Writer   Last update: 22 May 2004     NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Southeast Volusia law enforcement is merging onto the information superhighway.  As part of their Regional Communications Center joint dispatch and records management partnership, the New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater and Port Orange police departments are joining the Law Enforcement Data Sharing Consortium.  The graduate students and faculty at University of Central Florida working with the Orange County Sheriff's Office designed the program, which links police and sheriff record systems.  "We made them all speak the same language," said engineering technology professor Ron Eaglin, one of the technical designers.  He said the program works like an Internet search engine. An officer inputs in the data he or she is looking for and member record systems are searched. If there is a match, the data comes up on a computer screen.  "(Orange County Sheriff) Kevin Beary calls it 'Google for cops,' " Eaglin said.  Before the consortium, he said an investigator might spend hours or days on the phone trying to track down a bit of data, such as a pawn ticket on a piece of suspected stolen jewelry. Now that can be done in minutes.  There are about 60 sheriff and police agencies connected to the system, and Eaglin said more are expressing interest daily.  The cost of the program depends on the size of the department. The fee for the Regional Communications Center to connect is $5,000 annually. That money is used to provide upkeep of the software and pay the staff on a break-even basis, Eaglin said.   New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater authorities called the decision to join a "no brainer."   "We are jumping all over this," said Edgewater Chief Mike Ignasiak.  He said a suspect in a crime in his community might be doing the same thing in another area and the sharing system allows his officers to uncover that connection quickly.  His counterpart in New Smyrna Beach, Chief Ron Pagano, called the system an "ingenious plan."  "It will connect the entire I-4 corridor," he said.  They were not alone in their praise.   Gary Davidson, spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff, said his agency is looking at the consortium as a time-saving measure.  "Lots of times in investigations, time is a very critical thing in being able to conduct searches and get suspect information. This will allow us to collect public record information, but through an electronic database," he said. "It will help us solve crimes quicker and when you do that, you can stop crime spree and prevent others from being victimized."