Grant Would Be for Police Gadgets to Check Licenses, Warrants

BY GARY B. GRAY
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
BRISTOL, Tenn. – General Sessions Court judges want police officers to increase the number of times they check the status of driver’s licenses and whether the drivers may have outstanding warrants against them.

To accomplish that goal, the city’s police department is pursuing a $450,000 grant to pay for wireless, hand-held computers that will help officers obtain “real-time” information in the field.

Currently, officers check for warrants on about 8 percent to 15 percent of all citizens they come in contact with, said Maj. Tim Eads.

Judges say officers are making contact with people who are wanted, but they are not being arrested because the information is not available in real time, Eads said.

“General sessions’ judges now want 100 percent of contacts queried,” Eads said. “I don’t mean to say that’s what they’ve mandated. That’s an ultimate goal, but it’s really a suggestion.”

Eads said it is “logistically impossible” for officers and dispatchers to query every contact made with citizens under the current system.

“Right now, whether we do a query or not is at the officer’s discretion, and we currently use a two-way radio to make those checks,” he said. “That means we have to call someone who must then check a database or make another call.”

When asked if officers are perhaps failing to do thorough checks, Eads quickly responded.

“This is absolutely not a negative reflection on our officers,” he said. “Again, every traffic stop, for example, does not demand a background check.”
Should the grant come through, each officer would be issued personal digital assistants called PDAs.

The high-tech gadgets fit in the palm of the hand or in a pocket and come with a powerful processor that allows the user to run thousands of software packages. The department chose the PDAs over the more cumbersome laptop computers.

“Unlike an ordinary computer, it can always be with you,” Eads said. “Information queries that require an officer to make contact with two or three different people or organizations will now be completed directly through the PDA.”

The purchase basically will allow officers to more quickly do background checks and conclude their queries so they can wrap up their reports in the field and get back on patrol, Eads said.

Tonight, the City Council will vote on whether to pursue the grant.

“This system will allow greater accuracy and efficiency in our reporting efforts, as well as the issuance of citations,” Eads said. “Driver’s license, vehicle registration and criminal intelligence information will be provided within seconds.”

The devices would be used to communicate with the Tennessee Department of Vehicles, Tennessee and National Crime Information Center, National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and the Tennessee Information Enforcement System.

Officers would spend less time detaining suspects or questioning people pulled over at routine traffic stops, and they would not have to physically return to headquarters, increasing officer presence in the community, Eads added. Police Chief Blaine Wade said the department became aware of the grant in early June. The Byrne Grant, administered by the Federal Bureau of Justice Assistance, requires no local match.

“A PDA and a portable printer would be issued to all sworn police officers, and the grant would fully fund the equipment, software and program training, leaving minimal software maintenance fees and airtime usage fees after the first year,” Wade said.

ggray@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2512