Video: New SPD Equipment Cuts Time And Crime

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – New technology is allowing Starkville Police Officers to convert their squad cars into rolling offices.

The new system means they can write up reports and print out tickets from their vehicle.

This means more time patrolling streets and being seen by residents.

The tech upgrade means officers can save time and cut crime.

It’s called mobile data terminals. It’s a laptop unit that’s placed on a mount in the passenger seat, and makes reporting systems available in police cars.

“The whole system, this including the GPS units, the computer, the mounts, every single piece of equipment for the deployment, along with the software is about $6,300 dollars per unit.”

Officers will have access to it at all times, and will know where other on duty officers are patrolling.

“It’s going to increase efficiency, not only are we going to have officers that don’t have to come to the station as much, we’re going to save in fuel costs from that for going back and forth to locations, and you’re going to be able to dispatch units that are closer,” says Starkville Police Department Public Information Officer, Brandon Lovelady.

Officer Christopher Jackson has been fighting crime for almost a decade, and says he notices time saved and a big difference with the new software.

“I think that it’s going to help the community tremendously. You’ll see more officer presence, which is going to lower crime rates. You have more involvement with the community, and you spend more time out in the streets, compared to in the police department.”

Since more time will be spent in patrol cars, officers will be more aware of their surroundings

“You can choose a suitable location where people can’t sneak up behind you, or to the side of you, and you can do your reports that way, or you can just park into an empty parking lot, where there’s no one around in the middle of the night, or you can hide on the side of the building, just like running radar, where you hide your vehicle running radar, and type your report,” says Jackson.

The Starkville Police Department ordered 34 units, and those units will not only cut time and crime, but also strengthen relationships with citizens.

“It does make people more susceptible to report crimes that they would not normally report, because it’s more of a convenience for the general citizen, instead of taking them out of their comfort zone to the police department, or them having to make time to come visit us, we can easily go visit them, take the computer out of the car, and we can do it there,” says Jackson.

A handful of units have already been installed in the vehicles, and more being installed day by day.

Categories: Local News

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *