Police Department receives grant for new in-car computers
NORTH GREENBUSH, N.Y. >> Town officials recently announced that they received a Public Safety Grant from New York State Senator Kathy Marchione, enabling them to upgrade laptop computers in all police department patrol units.
Officials said the police department has nine marked patrol units, all equipped with laptops. The computers are used for numerous functions from report writing, issuing tickets, operation of the in-car camera system, interagency communication and more.
“In-car computers have become vital for police officers these days. Our industry is becoming more technologically sophisticated and we need to have the proper equipment to perform our jobs the best we can” Chief David Keevern said in a news release. “Due to their age, our computers have slowed down and a couple have died completely which takes a car out of service. That places more of a burden on the remaining units.”
According to a news release, existing computers were purchased around the same time were outdated, so when one died, it signaled the end for all of them being near, which would’ve meant a major burden on the officers and the patrol cars.
In August, officials said North Greenbush Town Supervisor, Lou Desso, coordinated with Senator Marchione to get funding for new computers for the police department.
“The police serve an essential role in society and they have to be properly equipped to do their jobs” Supervisor Desso said in the release.
“We knew we had to replace the aging computers and were working on figuring out how to fund that project when I found out about the Public Safety Grant.”
Desso said he also worked with the town Comptroller, Anthony Germano, to apply for the grant of $7,500 which had been approved in September.
“Senator Marchione has always worked to improve public safety in our communities and this will be a great way to do that here in North Greenbush,” Desso said in the release.
Chief Keevern also noted, “The Town of North Greenbush is very careful with the budget and the funding of this project wasn’t built in for the year. We can’t thank Senator Marchione enough. We were at a critical point with the existing computers and couldn’t have done this at this time without her help.”