Technology and computerization are changing the face of local law enforcement and making major changes in how today's police forces operate.

Seven years ago the Warsaw police had no cellular phones or computers, and used only basic typewriters, pagers and radios.

Now with computers, fax-modems, laptops, alpha-numeric pagers, cellular phones, body video and laser radar, police officers have access to unlimited information at the flick of a switch.

"The technology helps us to do our jobs better and faster and more efficiently," said Warsaw Police Chief Craig Allebach.

Around 1991 the police force made its opening moves into the modern era by buying several mobile phones for squad cars before cellular technology was available in Warsaw, Allebach said.

Mobile phones allowed police to contact each other directly instead of going through the dispatcher, to respond to and make outside phone calls from police cars, and to communicate about secure or confidential information without being overheard on a radio.

The department upgraded to cellular phones when local cellular service became available, and now has 18 phones.

"Our goal is to put that technology in every officer's hands," Allebach said. "The quality is a lot better with cellular technology and now we can actually put the phone on the officer's belt."

Another fairly recent change has been the addition of alpha-numeric pagers, or pagers that can spell out a message to the officer.

"We had pagers before, but they were radio pagers, they were limited in range and they were not confidential," Allebach said.

The new pagers are part of a system in which the police dispatcher can send a message to all officers at once or to only a select group, such as only the detectives or the dive team.

"That system's worked out really well for us - we don't know how we were able to live without it," Allebach said.

In 1990 the Warsaw police had one computer; now every office has a PC, and the department has provided laptop computers to several officers. Last fall Allebach applied for a grant through the Community Oriented Policing Offices program to fund 15 computers that will go into 15 squad cars.

The laptops give the officers nearly unlimited access to all sorts of information, he said. For instance, software about traffic accidents and reconstruction can be used by accident investigators. Officers also can do accident and incident reports, link with the National Crime Information Center and Indiana's data center, run license and registration checks, connect with the in-house computer and send messages - all from their cars.

The possibilities are endless, and Allebach's approach is to make the technology available to the police force, and let each officer become accustomed to it at his own pace.

Some of the other developments available to police departments include a computerized pad that allows an officer to do a fingerprint check in the field; a national computerized DNA data base for sex crimes; a program that collects information about gun and ammunition "fingerprints" and connects crimes committed by the same weapon even if they're done years apart; laser gun sights; lightweight and easy-to-handle "stop sticks," tire deflaters used to stop fleeing cars; small, programmable radios; remote control, wireless radars and laser radars; and body video, a small video camera an officer can wear that transmits images back to the video recorder in the police car.

"It is exciting," Allebach said, "and it's hard to say where it's all going to end." [[In-content Ad]]