By Kari Eakins – 2 Oct ’14
The Cheyenne Police Department is upgrading technology in an effort to increase efficiency. Patrol cars are being fitted with GPS systems and officers will be using computer tablets in their patrol cars.
Police Chief Brian Kozak says the GPS systems will decrease response times for calls to the department because the two police officers closest to the call will automatically be picked to respond, “The way it currently is right now, the call is dispatched and the dispatcher doesn’t know where those officers are responding from, now the computer will pick the two closest units and dispatch those two closest units.”
Kozak adds that the tablets officers will be using will be linked to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), allowing them to access information much faster.
“When an officer pulls someone over and they swipe your driver’s license or scan it, all that data will automatically be run through NCIC,” explains Kozak. “It’s automatically going to download into a ticket and into a report, if the officer chooses to write a report. It’s going to save so much time, for example, a traffic stop which might take ten minutes now, could probably be reduced to three minutes.”
The computer integration will be the first of this kind in Wyoming according to Kozak. The CPD hopes to have the new technology and systems up and running in January or early February.
