Canfield police take over network

Boardman could no longer afford to host the police computer network.

STAFF REPORT

BOARDMAN — Police agencies in the Mahoning Valley have been cooperating on an in-car computer system for the past 14 years with its server based in the Boardman Police Department, but the location has changed.

“The Canfield Police Department has agreed to take over the system and its maintenance,” said Boardman Police Chief Patrick J. Berarducci.

The network enables police officers in their cars to check vehicle registration records, criminal records as well as operators’ licenses and photographs from a Mobile Data Terminal or MDT in each cruiser. It is a valuable tool for law enforcement with more than 100 MDTs deployed in the cruisers of 14 separate departments in the Valley.

The responsibility for the system changed hands last week.

Earlier this year area police chiefs were invited to sign a memorandum of understanding with Canfield after it agreed to host the system. The agreement has each agency paying its own costs.

“Last year I hosted a meeting and told the other chiefs about our financial condition and the very real possibility of Boardman police officers or other employees being laid off as a result. I could no longer absorb the costs that my predecessors had,” said Berarducci.

Canfield Chief David Blystone took the lead and offered to host the network at no cost to Boardman.

Berarducci believes his first-year savings with the new agreement will exceed $100,000 in personnel, contractor and related costs that the township was paying under the old arrangement. Each year those costs were going up. Now Boardman will pay for its MDT equipment only, not for the network or its maintenance.

Further savings may be realized if federal grant money becomes available for this type of project after Jan. 1, but in the meantime an internal audit ordered by the chief and conducted by Lt. Albert Kakascik, has identified other savings that have also been adopted.

Boardman has changed its software, and the anticipated savings in the first year are $14,850 in upgrade costs and an additional $1,426 in yearly maintenance fees.

Kakascik has also collaborated with Canfield on the selection of new shock-resistant laptops for Boardman’s cruisers, which will save costly and repeated laptop repairs in the future.

“The new laptops will not cost Boardman taxpayers a penny to purchase,” Berarducci said. “The old ones will be used for parts as they break to piece together working units that can be used elsewhere in the department when their reliability is not as critical as front-line patrol.”

The department further enhanced its in-car computers and reduced costs by aggressively negotiating to use Alltel wireless air cards. The wireless cards provide higher-speed Internet connectivity at a monthly rate of $45 rather than the $60 per month being charged by the former provider.

The big cost savings, however, were achieved by reducing the total number of air cards being paid for from 35 to 15. In the past, every patrol car had a laptop and an air card installed even if the car was not in use.

“We are saving about $17,000 per year in wireless service charges with our new system of issuing laptops to officers, not cruisers,” Berarducci said. ”We also need 20 less laptops than before, which is a savings of an additional $46,000 in equipment.”