CYPRESS : Police to Get New Voice-Mail System

To improve the ability to receive and send telephone messages, the Police Department is getting a $7,900 voice-mail system.

The City Council recently unanimously approved the purchase. The money is to come from assets seized by police during drug raids and arrests.

Capt. Bob Krauss said the new system would save time of both residents and police. “It’ll keep us from endlessly playing phone tag,” Krauss said.

He noted that police often require that specific information gets to a specific officer, such as someone investigating a burglary.

Krauss said the new system will allow a resident to report the needed information directly to the investigating officer’s voice mail.

The new voice-mail system will serve both the Police Department and the Cypress Recreation and Parks District. Police officials, in a memo to the council, said that the parks district’s existing voice-mail equipment could be upgraded and the Police Department could be added to it.

The $7,900 cost would pay for the entire conversion, police officials said in their memo.

“By the addition of the Police Department to the (park district’s) current system, supplementary benefits would be realized by the Recreation and Parks District,” the police memo said. “The hardware equipment would be moved to the Police Department and activated with an emergency backup power source, thus eliminating the likelihood of a loss of service in the event of a power outage.”