Valley Police Station Gets 1st Batch of Computers : Law enforcement: Once installed citywide, the privately funded system is expected to save 640,000 hours annually.

Dozens of new computers have arrived at the Los Angeles Police Department, the opening salvo in a privately funded campaign organized by Mayor Richard Riordan to modernize the agency’s antiquated record-keeping system.

“The chief wanted to get more police officers on the street and this will do it,” said Capt. Val Paniccia, the commanding officer of the West Valley Division in Reseda, where the first batch of computers has been installed. “It will also give detectives more time to investigate cases.”

The Foothill Division in the east San Fernando Valley, which was recently wired for computers as part of an ongoing expansion and renovation process, will receive the next bunch of computers. Following that on the list are the Southwest, 77th Street and Hollywood divisions.

Once installed at stations citywide, the new computers are expected to save the LAPD more than 640,000 hours annually--the equivalent of 368 officers.

Department officials estimate that officers spend as much as 40% of their day completing paperwork. But the computers will eliminate the need to rewrite and duplicate police reports.

The new technology is being underwritten by the Mayor’s Alliance for a Safer L.A., which so far has raised $11.5 million in cash, services and equipment. The group, consisting of business and civic leaders, believes it can raise $15 million by this summer to purchase 1,700 computer workstations, as well as electronic-mail and voice-mail equipment.

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The computers will eventually connect all of the city’s 18 police divisions with LAPD headquarters at Parker Center.

So far, about 30 computers have been installed at the Reseda station, with another 30 expected to be hooked up within the next two months. The West Valley Division was picked to begin the modernization program because several officers there are computer experts, LAPD officials said.

A wide variety of police information will eventually be stored in the new computer system. Crime reports that employees had to search for by hand in thick notebooks, as well as hand-deliver to other parts of the department, will be available at the touch of a computer key. Robbery detectives will no longer have to haul files to weekly meetings to discuss cases, communicating instead through electronic mail. Officers will no longer have to fill out five different reports typically required in drunk driving arrests.

At the West Valley Division, civilian volunteers will be typing preliminary crime report information into computers on a table in the lobby.

Paniccia said the division also recently received $3,000 from Los Angeles Councilwoman Laura Chick’s office for video conferencing equipment, which within the next month will allow detectives to review cases with city and county prosecutors without having to leave the station.

“In the long run when the entire system is up and running it will save a heck of a lot of time,” West Valley Detective Robert Johansen said.

“We hope to go to an almost paperless department,” said Detective Bob Howe, who along with Detective Thomas Barnhart has been among the key workers in the effort to install the computers at the West Valley station.

Even high technology must conform to the LAPD’s limited budget, however.

At West Valley, the robbery desk is located in what used to be a locker room, and some of the new computers have been set up next to a shower stall and a former bathroom.

Purchase of the computers is being made possible by contributions from hundreds of corporations, foundations, small businesses and residents, according to Kimberly King, who is managing the fund-raising effort.

“The folks who have contributed to this campaign are tired of the negative image that is portrayed of Los Angeles by the media worldwide,” she said.

King said the computer system will enable Los Angeles to be the first city in the state to have access to a California Department of Justice database.

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The 16 major private donors include the Ahmanson Foundation, which gave $3 million, and Blue Cross of California, which gave $1.5 million. Other donors of more than $100,000 include William Keck Jr., L.A. Cellular, Kaufman & Broad, the Hollywood Leadership Alliance, Food 4 Less, Arco and Ticketmaster. Engineering giant Fluor Daniel has volunteered system design and project management services.