Five area police departments will be able to share greater amounts of data on crimes and traffic stops with expanded technology being provided by a New Jersey firm.

BIO-key International provided the software to power an expansion of a cross-jurisdictional law enforcement data sharing system that will allow a consortium of Bristol and Norfolk County police departments to rapidly share information on people's arrest records and other information relevant to solving crimes.

The new system allows the departments to share information stored in each other's records management systems and provide it directly to laptop computers in patrol cars.

North Attleboro, Wrentham, Norfolk, Plainville and Franklin previously formed the consortium to share information and, like many communities throughout the United States, already enjoyed access to federal, state and their own databases.

By linking databases, however, the communities can share information about crimes and potential suspects directly by initiating a search using a wireless data terminal. When a "hit" is found and reported back to an officer over a secure communications line, the specific department is identified, so the officer knows where the information came from.

The data sharing system is also used by other staff at the five departments, such as detectives who may want to investigate crime patterns.

Not only does the system allow the five towns to share criminal information, Plainville Police Chief Edward Merrick said, the system eventually could serve as a portal to the Statewide Information Sharing System now being implemented by the state.

A separate, but similarly functioning data-sharing system, was developed by law enforcement officials in the Raynham-Taunton area four years ago with help from national Homeland Security funds and has since been expanded to include Fall River, New Bedford, Brockton and Attleboro.