$56,000 grant improves local police efforts

By NOREEN HYSLOP

Managing Editor

Through a grant written by Lt. Patrick Barbour of the Dexter Police Department, seven patrol units of the department's fleet have been equipped this week with new mobile data terminals (MDTs).

The terminals are individual computers that will provide officers on the road instant access to driver's license information and criminal record reports and will enable officers to draft reports directly from the scene of an accident or crime scene.

"These units will definitely expedite our reporting process," Barbour explains, "and we'll no longer have to wait on information to be broadcast back to us when we have vehicle stopped. We'll be able to immediately check the information right in our vehicles."

The only cost to the local department, says Barbour, is the cost of additional software, which is minimal.

The computer systems are valued at nearly $8,000 per unit, with their entire cost, including installation, made possible by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by way of Missouri Local Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Committee. That committee is comprised of Missouri sheriffs and police chiefs.

"There were 196 units available across the state," Asst. Police Chief Charles Sanders says, "and we were very fortunate to have been granted seven of those units."

Officers will be participating in special training on the equipment at Highway Patrol Troop E Headquarters in Poplar Bluff in the near future.