Vote Gets Ventura Rolling on Patrol Car Computers

Completing the final step to receive federal funds, the Ventura City Council on Monday night authorized spending $102,000 to eventually install special computers in all the city’s police cars.

The computer system, known as Mobile Data Computer, or MDC, allows officers to transmit digital messages directly from the station to the patrol car. The computers can be used to transmit information about suspects and warrants.

Officers also say the car computers can cut down on errors that occur when they try to decipher crackly voice transmissions, and allows officers to work more efficiently from their cars, without having to return to the station.

“We are trying to make the police cars as much of an office as possible,” said Lt. David Inglis, the project manager. “This way whatever anyone else can do at their desk, officers can do in their cars.”

Inglis said that eventually the system will be installed in all 40 of the department’s cars, and will also provide a backbone system for other safety agencies in the city.

Several Southern California police departments already use the MDC technology. The Los Angeles Police Department has used it for years, and Santa Barbara recently finished installing its system, according to Ventura Chief Richard Thomas.

On Monday, the council approved Ventura’s participation in the federal Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program, which will provide $92,000 for installation of the computers. They also approved transferring $10,000 from the city’s technology fund to supplement the federal grant.

The city had already allocated $233,000 in state funding toward the new computer technology last October. Thomas said installing the computers in all the cars will probably cost between $600,000 and $700,000. The computers should be functioning in city black and whites within six months to a year.