West Valley Police Get New Computers : LAPD: Privately funded technology is expected to free up officers.

Dozens of new computers have arrived at the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division, the opening salvo in a privately funded campaign organized by Mayor Richard Riordan to modernize the department’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. “It will also give detectives more time to investigate cases.”

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 now spend as much as 40% of their work shifts completing paperwork.

But the new computers will eliminate the need to rewrite and duplicate police reports, and cut down the time needed to create a suspect’s composite from weeks to one hour.

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 of local business and civic leaders expects to raise $15 million by this summer to purchase 1,700 computer work stations, as well as electronic mail and voice mail equipment.

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

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

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 expert in computers, LAPD officials said.

A wide variety of police information will eventually be stored in the new computer system, which will have the capability of quickly reproducing and transferring files and information.

Crime reports that had to be hand-searched through thick notebooks and hand-delivered to other parts of the department will be available with the touch of a key at computer stations citywide. Robbery detectives will no longer have to haul files to weekly meetings, communicating instead through electronic mail. And officers will no longer have to fill out five different reports typically required in drunk-driving arrests.

The new system will also save detectives’ dozens of hours each month by compiling statistics and other information.

A table that will be staffed by civilians has been set up in the lobby of the West Valley Division that will allow volunteers to collect preliminary crime information and type it into computers.

“In the long-term 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.

West Valley in addition has received $3,000 from Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick’s office for video-conferencing equipment. Within the next month, the system will allow detectives to review cases by computer with city and county prosecutors without having to leave the station.

But even the new technology must still conform to the LAPD’s limited budget. At West Valley, the robbery desk is now 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 restroom.

The Foothill Division, which was recently wired for computers as part of an ongoing expansion and renovation, will receive the next batch of computers, followed by the Southwest, 77th Street and Hollywood divisions.

Kimberly King, who is managing the fund-raising campaign, said the new technology is the result of contributions by hundreds of corporations, foundations, small businesses and residents.

“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 also enable Los Angeles to be the first city in the state to have access to a California Department of Justice database.

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, Hollywood Leadership Alliance, Food 4 Less, Arco and Ticketmaster.