The story goes like this: Steve Gradert was standing before a federal judge with his client when a cellphone ring pierced the courtroom.

Everyone looked around.

U.S. Senior District Judge Wesley Brown looked annoyed — disgusted, even.

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An addition to local crime-fighting efforts is already paying noteworthy dividends, law enforcement officials say.

Two months ago, crime analysts were assigned to each of the city’s four police bureaus. They study crime data, looking for trends.

“Where is the latest trend?” said Capt. Hassan Ramzah of the Patrol East Bureau. “They’re looking to identify the potential emerging crime wave.”

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Rod Page, special agent in charge with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, remembers the sinking feeling one morning last June when he stepped outside his Wichita home and realized someone had broken into his undercover vehicle.

The thieves seemed prepared. They used bolt cutters to steal a semiautomatic rifle that had been locked in. They took binoculars used for aerial spotting.

Page learned from investigators that four other law enforcement agencies in surrounding counties had vehicles that had been hit around the same time. Authorities arrested some of the thieves, and Page knows of one who ended up in prison. They were “meth heads” targeting police vehicles for the valuable equipment inside, Page said.

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