NYPD Installs Flat-Screen TVs
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The New York Police Department has begun to install flat-screen plasma video screens in precincts around the city and in the offices of police brass as part of an at least $6.5 million initiative to bring up to date communications between commands.
“This is a major step forward for us,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday. “We’re trying to implement the best business practices.”
Mr. Kelly said the new technology, which has been installed in many precincts but has yet to be fully completed, would be used to implement training programs for many of the police department’s 36,000 officers.
The new video screens would streamline the way in which precinct captains and other high-ranking officers communicate on a daily basis, Mr. Kelly said.
The new technology would be a cost saving investment for the Police Department, Mr. Kelly added, because the bulk of the system’s cost would be covered by federal funds allotted by the Homeland Security Department.
According to a preliminary budget filed by the Police Department to the City Council’s public safety committee this January, the police have contracted with telecommunications giant Verizon to provide infrastructure and networking services. The cost is $350,000 for fiscal year 2004, according to a copy of the preliminary budget, and $1.6 million for each year until 2008.
The chairman of the City Council’s public safety committee, Peter Vallone Jr., said the Police Department and other criminal justice agencies have been under pressure to spend homeland security funds, a blend of federal grants that are strictly designated for the purchase of new materials and not for the upgrade of old machinery or pay raises.
“The problem with the homeland security funds is that the Police Department and other agencies like it can’t spend the money where they need it most, like hiring more police officers,” Mr. Vallone said. “Considering that one of the greatest recommendations to the Police Department has been improved communications, a purchase like this certainly seems justified.”
The amount of federal money the Department receives from Washington has been slipping in recent years. In fiscal year 2003, the Police Department requested $190 million in homeland security funds and received $96 million, records show. This year, the number decreased dramatically. The Police Department requested $100 million in homeland security grants and received $22 million in federal funds.
One reason for the decrease, Mr. Vallone said, was because many other cities had applied for the homeland security grants. The Police Department has also recently acquired a giant “data wall” from the Imtech Corporation. The wall, valued at $1 million and located at police headquarters, is designed to monitor crime statistics from each borough in real time and has the ability to conduct video teleconferences, according to Paul Noble, chief executive officer of the New Jersey-based Imtech.