TRUMBULL COUNTY Plan to form emergency service system

The computers would be similar to those used by Warren police.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Every active police car, ambulance and fire engine on duty in Trumbull County could soon be outfitted with laptop computers with e-mail access, courtesy of a $600,000 federal grant.
Among other things, the computers would allow officers from various departments to communicate directly with one another without asking for the dispatcher to patch them through.
"By the time we get the patch, a situation could be over with," said Warren Police Chief John Mandopoulos. "An officer could be dead."
Under a plan proposed by local emergency planning committees, with the blessing of the county police chief association, laptop computers, wireless modems and antennas would be installed in hundreds of vehicles across the county that don't already have them. The cost is expected to be between $3,000 and $5,000 per car.
Several larger departments, including Liberty and Warren, already have installed systems in their police cars. Warren officers recently made the news for using the devices to send off-color and nonwork-related messages among themselves.
The plan is to buy the laptops for departments that need them with U.S. Department of Justice grant money that is already available and configure them to work off towers, radio equipment and computers installed by Warren police in 1998.
Monthly fee
The only cost for departments accepting the mobile data terminals, as they are called, would be a monthly fee -- perhaps $35 per terminal -- paid to Warren, said Tim Gladis, county 911 director.
The fees would be used to spread the cost of a $200,000-a-year service contract on the tower and network equipment, Mandopoulos said. He said the system was designed so it could cover the whole county without any upgrade.
In addition to use for exchanging messages, the computers could be used to look up information on law enforcement databases or fill out reports, Gladis said.
The plan was explained Thursday night at a free pork chop dinner for township trustees, clerks, fire and police chiefs and road superintendents. The dinner, served up by the Brookfield Fire Department at the township highway garage, was paid for by the Local Emergency Planning Commission.
Members of the LEPC's communications subcommittee, which includes Gladis, made the presentation. LEPC is funded through the state.
siff@vindy.com