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CALL 6: Officer Aurs may have 'spied' on IMPD as they searched for him

Posted at 3:51 PM, Aug 02, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-03 22:20:04-04

INDIANAPOLIS -- As IMPD officers frantically searched Friday night for one of their own accused of shooting a detective, Officer Adrian Aurs may have been tracking their movements with his department-issued laptop.

According to Call 6 sources, after Aurs reportedly got into a domestic disturbance with his wife around 8 p.m., detectives believe he returned to his home and used his police laptop to log into the county's computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system. That would have allowed him to follow the exact movements of responding officers as they searched for him.

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The system tracks every police and fire incident in the county. For almost all incidents, dispatchers write down what officers are reporting over the radio and take notes of exactly what is going on. The second-by-second rundown can give anyone a glimpse into exactly where police are located, what they’re doing and what’s happening next.

Sources say investigators believe that's how Aurs found out that a detective with the IMPD Special Investigations Unit had been assigned to the investigation.

Following the shooting, police were initially concerned Aurs might have been using his police radio to listen to officer communications and the SWAT team. During the initial search, officers were forced to communicate via cellphone, or in-person, which caused some delay in communications getting to responding officers.

The county 911 center was eventually able to remotely disable Aurs' police radio. It's unclear when officers determined Aurs might also have been using his computer to spy on the investigation.

During the search, police did locate Aurs' radio and duty belt inside his police vehicle at his apartment, but the laptop was not inside.