Funding Sought for LAPD Computers : Technology: Lack of equipment is slowing officers down, council panel says. To begin modernization would cost $15 million to $20 million.

Citing the Los Angeles Police Department’s woeful lack of modern technology, a member of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee is expected to introduce a motion Friday to launch a multimillion-dollar retrofitting of the nation’s second-busiest police department.

LAPD insiders have long maintained that the department’s technological inadequacies are nearly as crippling to police services as the shortage of officers. But in recent years, modernization has largely been overlooked as political leaders have focused on finding money to expand the department--part of Mayor Richard Riordan’s pledge to add 3,000 police officers to the force during his four-year term of office.

In today’s LAPD, many detectives spend more than half their time filling out paperwork, often by hand. Suspects can escape detection merely because they happen to be caught in a police division that does not have access to their files or fingerprint records. Patrol officers often lose valuable time because they have to fill out paperwork to check outequipment. Department managers, including Police Chief Willie L. Williams, cannot even tell instantly how many officers are on duty at any given time because no central computer links the LAPD’s 18 geographic divisions.

A motion drafted by Councilwoman Laura Chick, a member of the Public Safety Committee, cites some of those shortcomings and seeks to direct political attention to the problems created by the LAPD’s lack of technology. Her proposal has the backing of Police Department officials, who echo the need to modernize the LAPD’s aging equipment--both for efficiency and for department morale.

“I think it’s absolutely critical for us to do this,” said Bill Russell, the LAPD’s director of support services. “Over the past 10 years, we’ve fallen further and further behind in equipment and technology.”

Chick agreed.

“Here’s all this talk about the information superhighway,” she said. “We haven’t gotten the LAPD out of the horse-and-buggy.”

Common office items such as personal computers are a relative rarity at the LAPD. Many of its computers were donated by private companies, and this has led to incompatibility between the computers that police officers use.

“Much of the technology needed by the department is standard equipment in today’s business office,” Chick’s motion states. “If our patrol officers had access to computers for report writing, officer hours could be reprogrammed from behind a desk to in the community.”

Chick’s motion asks the Police Department to prepare a modernization report and proposes convening a special summit of Police Department leaders, technology experts and other law enforcement bosses to sketch a plan for the LAPD’s modernization. Suggestions would be solicited from the various experts, and “these suggestions, if relevant, should be integrated into the overall report on modernization of LAPD,” Chick’s motion states.

Although the motion does not spell out how to pay for any of the technology advances, Chick said federal grant money might fund part of the plan, while savings from making police officers more efficient will help make other improvements more affordable. In addition, she said, officials may need to consider a bond measure to raise funds for modernization.

The cost of any modernization would depend on what officials proposed to buy, but Chick and department officials estimate that a complete computerization of the LAPD would cost about $100 million. Russell added, however, that $15 million to $20 million would make a significant impact on immediate needs and lay the groundwork for further improvements.

In her motion, Chick asks the LAPD and the city administrative office to develop timetables and cost estimates for implementing various proposals.

“We don’t have the simple business systems that any large corporation takes for granted,” Russell said. “We have to change the way we do business.”