With grant, police plan to purchase MDTs

Print Story

Email to Friend

Discuss this story

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — A $166,000 Homeland Security grant will make it easier for police officers to communicate with their counterparts from other departments.

The money from the Homeland Security Grant Program was sought by the Trumbull County Law Enforcement Executives Association. It is administered by the Trumbull County Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

Weathersfield Police Chief Joseph P. Consiglio, association chairman, said the grant will allow for the purchase of 40 mobile data terminals, or MDTs, to be mounted in patrol cars.

The terminals, Consiglio explained, will allow for better communication among officers in many departments and increase safety and productivity.

Working together

Consiglio said he worked with Bazetta Police Chief Charles Sayers, the association's technical coordinator, to get the funding.

Some police agencies in the county such as the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Warren, McDonald and Bazetta police departments, already are using MDTs.

Consiglio said many patrol officers can't communicate with officers in other departments, especially during "critical situations," because each department is on a different radio frequency.

Also, the officers don't have direct access to the Law Enforcement Automated Data System, or LEADS, and National Crime Information Center, NCIC.

There is a delay going through a dispatcher to determine if a person undergoing a traffic stop has a criminal record, has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, has an outstanding arrest warrant or is driving a stolen vehicle.

"Sometimes it's not done in a timely manner," Consiglio said of using a dispatcher to relay such information to an officer in the field on a two-day radio.

Benefits of terminals

The terminals will allow officers to receive a driver's license photo on an in-car display to assure they are dealing with the correct person.

In addition, an officer can be notified that a burglary is in progress by what is termed a "silent dispatch." This is so the thief can't hear on a scanner the call that police are on their way.

Consiglio said the terminals will result in more pro-active officers who are more efficient because of the direct communications, and safer because of the information at hand.

He explained that he and Sayers are in the process of determining the fixed costs to operate the terminals.

"The cost may be prohibitive for some departments," Consiglio said, noting that although there is no local cost for the terminals, there is a software maintenance fee and a cost for using wireless LEADS.

A small police department may be able to afford only an MDT, the chief said. But he pointed out that they can be transferred from one car as it comes off of patrol to another going on duty.

The timetable is the get the 40 terminals in use by January.

Sunday, October 1, 2006