Your information, on a cop’s computer

A $10,000 grant will help the Langley Police Department to catch up on the emergency technology used by other law enforcement agencies on Whidbey Island and around the state.

According to Police Chief Bob Herzberg, the federal grant will pay part of the cost of installing the computers in patrol cars. The plans to purchase the equipment has been in the works for the past 10 years. A portion of another $10,000 grant sitting in the department’s reserve fund for the past decade will be used by the department to make the purchase without dipping into locally generated public funds.

Herzberg said the department will purchase computers for each of the department’s four patrol cars. He estimated each laptop will cost about $4,000 a vehicle, which includes approximately $2,000 for the computer, money for special software used by emergency agencies, computer mounting equipment for the vehicles, an air card modem for wireless Internet, and installation costs.

In all, the Langley City Council approved the expenditure of $18,000 on the project at its Oct. 20 meeting. Herzberg, who has been with the Langley Department since the late 1970s, said he couldn’t be happier with the advance.

“It’s just an amazing tool,” he said. “This is just a major step up.”

Herzberg said the new equipment will allow officers to check for arrest warrants while on the road, as well as driver’s license information and criminal records. The computers will also link with the county’s 911 system, carry computerized maps, and will be able to check a law enforcement photograph data base.

“Everything that we’ve been using a two-way radio to do, we can do ourselves,” Herzberg said.

Laura Price, an Island County Sheriff’s deputy and former Langley police officer, said using the laptop in her sheriff’s vehicle has made her job easier. She is one of the first deputies in the county to use the technology, having been online with the system for about a month. She said the computer’s capabilities are helpful, but only when she can get cellular modem reception.

“It’s very handy as long as I have the service,” she said. “It just depends where I’m at.”

She said she can multitask patrol duties with some office work on the road. Recently, she said she used the computer to complete reports while she was running a speed trap. She said the computer also allows her to pull drivers’ records to find out whether they are who they say they are.

“It’s just going to be great to have our computers in our cars,” Price said.

According to Herzberg, the vehicle laptops are also used by Oak Harbor Police Department and Coupeville Police Department. He said he hopes to have the laptops installed in Langley Police Department vehicles by the end of 2004.

Jennifer Conway / The Record

Deputy Laura Price uses one of the first laptop computers installed in a patrol car for the Island County Sheriff’s Office. Langley Police officers hope to have the same technology installed in their patrol cars later this year.

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