Police chief seeks server for mobile data terminals

Mobile data terminals are the 'wave of the future,' a police chief says.
WARREN -- Liberty Police Chief Anthony Slifka wants Trumbull County's 911 center in Howland to have its own server for mobile computer terminals in police cars.
Slifka said such a server would allow police in participating communities countywide to type in direct wireless inquiries of the state's law enforcement computer system from their cruisers -- without having to speak to a dispatcher.
Liberty and Warren police have such servers and mobile data terminals (MDTs) in their cruisers. Slifka estimated such a server could be installed for about $20,000 and would cost about $12,000 to $14,000 annually to maintain.
Benefits
The installation would allow police to make multiple license plate checks on vehicles without having to take up a dispatcher's time unless the state computer reported a vehicle stolen or made some other finding, he said.
"They could drive through a parking lot at a hotel complex and run every license plate number," Slifka said after making his proposal at a county 911 review board meeting Wednesday. "We get pictures of the suspects in the field" on MDTs in Liberty police cruisers, he added.
Such a system also reduces routine chatter over the airwaves, allows for voiceless dispatching and reduces the need to broadcast Social Security numbers or other sensitive information by voice over a police radio system anyone can monitor with a scanner, he said.
Increasing participation
"It's the wave of the future," he said of MDTs, adding that having an MDT server in the county 911 system could entice more communities to participate in the county system.
"If we want to make that 911 center the magnet to draw people in, I think we've got to start thinking beyond what our current limitations are," said Lt. Joseph Dragovich, commander of the Ohio State Highway Patrol's Southington Post. MDT technology is a regular topic of discussion at police chiefs' meetings, he said.
MDTs are a "useful tool for officers," said Karen Davies, interim county 911 director. However, she added: "There's a lot of behind the scenes administration that has to go on with the MDTs. It's not simply buying a server and paying my $20,000 check." Davies said she'd need to devote staff time to monitor and audit such a system.
The state computer system, known as the Law Enforcement Automated Data System (LEADS), contains information about stolen vehicles, people wanted on warrants and people's criminal records.