LOS ANGELES : City Accepts Computers to Modernize Police Force
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday formally accepted a gift of 1,590 personal computers, which donors bought to help modernize police offices and squad rooms.
The computers will be linked so that officers throughout the city will be able to communicate electronically from station to station, and will be able to access computer records filed anywhere in the agency.
“How it is that in 1995 we’re not computerized confuses me,” Councilman Mike Hernandez said. “The realities are we, as a city, are definitely behind in that particular area.”
The donation came from the Mayor’s Alliance for a Safer L.A., a coalition of community and business leaders that raised $15 million for the largest private gift in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department.
According to officials, the new computers will cut 15% off the time it takes officers to write reports and look up files--which is the equivalent of adding 368 full-time officers.
Police officials estimate that paperwork takes up to 40% of an officer’s work day.
The city will spend $6.8 million to wire stations and other police offices for the computer network, which will include electronic mail.
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