But the RTCC and Onalfo's other achievements almost didn't happen. "I went to the police commissioner on my first day and said, 'I quit,'" Onalfo recalls. "And he asked why, and I told him because we had no disaster recovery plan at all. A simple fire in the computer room, and we would be out of business."

Onalfo no longer has to grandstand, but he is still playing catch-up in many areas. For instance, the NYPD is in the midst of a $40 million project with Microsoft Corp. to install a total of 15,000 PCs over the next 18 months. "Can you imagine going to work and standing in line to use the computer?" he asked.

By doubling the number of PCs, many police officers will have easy access to e-mail and Microsoft desktop applications for the first time, along with hosted services through the NYPD intranet. The hope is that this will allow precincts to finally eliminate typewritten case reports. The PCs will be secured through a combination of fingerprint biometrics and chips on officers' IDs. Networks at precinct offices are also being upgraded from Token Ring technology to Ethernet, bringing them from 4Mbit/sec. to 100Mbit/sec.

The NYPD also recently upgraded all of its mainframes to IBM z990 systems, some of them running Linux. The big challenge there has been finding staffers who can run them. "I even have some guys at the nursing home who still come to work every day for us," he said.

In other areas, the NYPD is ahead of most Fortune 500 companies. It is in the midst of a $6 million project to build satellite communication systems for backups in case of emergencies. The department also recently installed million-dollar software that helps identify people and link their various identities by matching aliases, Social Security numbers and addresses.