Even though Bosque Farms has the smallest police department in the county, it has some of the most high-tech tools to help them do the job.
The department has recently installed new wireless Panasonic Toughbook laptop computers in all 12 of its police units, which provides officers a more efficient method to do their jobs on a daily basis.
Bosque Farms Police Chief Joe Stidham said acquiring the computers for the department has been a two-year project while waiting for legislative funding to become available. He said now that all the money needed to buy, install and program the computers is available, every police officer in the village has the ability to do more than they've ever done before.
"It's a really rugged laptop which is built for durable use for fire and police type services," Stidham said. "As we speak today, we are fully functional."
The laptops are not your typical police-issued computers that are used only to type up incident reports. The new Bosque Farms police computers now have the capability to do what only what local dispatchers previously could do.
"When an officer makes a traffic stop, he or she can run the person's license plate from the unit, they can run a driver's license check from the computer and if they (the motorist) doesn't have a driver's license with them, the officer can run it by name, date of birth or Social Security number," Stidham said. "It also has a link to check a New Mexico license photo."
Stidham said, in a matter of a less than a second, the information requested is displayed on the officer's computer screen in big red letters if a car comes back stolen or someone has an arrest warrant pending. All of the Bosque Farms police officers were trained by dispatch and are now National Crime Information Center (NCIC) certified to use the system.
"It doesn't eliminate our contact with dispatch altogether, but for us, we run a lot of traffic, so it will significantly decrease our air time with dispatch," the chief said. "The officer will still call dispatch and inform them they are making a traffic stop, but they won't contact them again unless he needs to until he clears the stop."
The chief said not only does the new system assist officers in saving time as well as dispatch resources, there is a big officer safety aspect to consider. Stidham explained that an officer knows, even before stepping out of his unit to confront a motorist, if the vehicle has been stolen.
Stidham estimates that the time it takes an officer to make a typical traffic stop, which includes a check for warrants and other information about the driver and vehicle and writing a citation, will be cut in half by utilizing the new system.
An added feature of the new system is an internal messaging system that officers can use to communicate with one another. The chief said being able to communicate with each other without the fear that someone is listening in on their own personal police scanner is another officer safety issue.
"It works similar to an e-mail account, but it's not — it's internal within the system," Stidham said. "We can also access the New Mexico State Police roster and see who's on the system at that time, and if the officer knows the state police officer is in Los Lunas district, they can message them and ask for backup.
"Once Los Lunas is on board, we'll have that messaging system capability with them too," he added.
Not only are the laptops being used in each officer's car, they are also being utilized as desktop computers by way of a special docking system designed for the device.
"Every work station and desk in the department has a docking station," Stidham said. "So the officers can take their laptop from their vehicle and dock it into the station without losing any data.
"By doing this, we've eliminated all of our desktops. We're not having to maintain two systems, update two systems, and the officer can go from his work station in the building to his unit."
Stidham credits Reps. Andrew Barreras, Elias Chavez and Kiki Saavedra, as well as outgoing Sen. James Taylor, for securing the legislative funding over the past two years to buy the computers. In all, the Bosque Farms Police Department was given $216,000 for the project.
Two years ago, the Legislature appropriated $166,000 to the department, which purchased all 12 computers at a cost of $5,000 each. The department was also able to use the first appropriation to purchase the mounting and docking hardware as well as a program that was supposed to connect the Bosque Farms Police Department to the state.
"They could never make it work," Stidham said. "The company basically sold a package that they really couldn't deliver on — they weren't prepared to make the connection with the Department of Public Safety in Santa Fe."
While trying to get the problems worked out, Bosque Farms began working directly with the state's Department of Public Safety, which in turn, guided the department to get the correct software and hardware needed for the project. Stidham, with the second legislative appropriation of $50,000, bought modems for all the computers.
Along with Bosque Farms, only a handful of departments across the state use the high-tech laptop computers, including the New Mexico State Police, Albuquerque Police Department, Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department, the Town of Bernalillo and Hildago County Sheriff's Department. The Village of Los Lunas Police Department has about 20 similar laptops, but the program is not yet functional.
"The main reason why we wanted this system is because of the safety aspect it provides to the officers," Stidham said. "Because of the amount of traffic we run, it's going to make the officers much safer. It will also cut down time for the dispatchers. It's just a great tool."
The chief said there are a few other components the department still has to purchase, but he's hoping for additional funding in the coming year. Stidham said he hopes that money can be secured to purchase an attachment officers can use to swipe in information from driver's licenses instead of having to manually key in the data.
The department has recently installed new wireless Panasonic Toughbook laptop computers in all 12 of its police units, which provides officers a more efficient method to do their jobs on a daily basis.
Bosque Farms Police Chief Joe Stidham said acquiring the computers for the department has been a two-year project while waiting for legislative funding to become available. He said now that all the money needed to buy, install and program the computers is available, every police officer in the village has the ability to do more than they've ever done before.
"It's a really rugged laptop which is built for durable use for fire and police type services," Stidham said. "As we speak today, we are fully functional."
The laptops are not your typical police-issued computers that are used only to type up incident reports. The new Bosque Farms police computers now have the capability to do what only what local dispatchers previously could do.
"When an officer makes a traffic stop, he or she can run the person's license plate from the unit, they can run a driver's license check from the computer and if they (the motorist) doesn't have a driver's license with them, the officer can run it by name, date of birth or Social Security number," Stidham said. "It also has a link to check a New Mexico license photo."
Stidham said, in a matter of a less than a second, the information requested is displayed on the officer's computer screen in big red letters if a car comes back stolen or someone has an arrest warrant pending. All of the Bosque Farms police officers were trained by dispatch and are now National Crime Information Center (NCIC) certified to use the system.
"It doesn't eliminate our contact with dispatch altogether, but for us, we run a lot of traffic, so it will significantly decrease our air time with dispatch," the chief said. "The officer will still call dispatch and inform them they are making a traffic stop, but they won't contact them again unless he needs to until he clears the stop."
The chief said not only does the new system assist officers in saving time as well as dispatch resources, there is a big officer safety aspect to consider. Stidham explained that an officer knows, even before stepping out of his unit to confront a motorist, if the vehicle has been stolen.
Stidham estimates that the time it takes an officer to make a typical traffic stop, which includes a check for warrants and other information about the driver and vehicle and writing a citation, will be cut in half by utilizing the new system.
An added feature of the new system is an internal messaging system that officers can use to communicate with one another. The chief said being able to communicate with each other without the fear that someone is listening in on their own personal police scanner is another officer safety issue.
"It works similar to an e-mail account, but it's not — it's internal within the system," Stidham said. "We can also access the New Mexico State Police roster and see who's on the system at that time, and if the officer knows the state police officer is in Los Lunas district, they can message them and ask for backup.
"Once Los Lunas is on board, we'll have that messaging system capability with them too," he added.
Not only are the laptops being used in each officer's car, they are also being utilized as desktop computers by way of a special docking system designed for the device.
"Every work station and desk in the department has a docking station," Stidham said. "So the officers can take their laptop from their vehicle and dock it into the station without losing any data.
"By doing this, we've eliminated all of our desktops. We're not having to maintain two systems, update two systems, and the officer can go from his work station in the building to his unit."
Stidham credits Reps. Andrew Barreras, Elias Chavez and Kiki Saavedra, as well as outgoing Sen. James Taylor, for securing the legislative funding over the past two years to buy the computers. In all, the Bosque Farms Police Department was given $216,000 for the project.
Two years ago, the Legislature appropriated $166,000 to the department, which purchased all 12 computers at a cost of $5,000 each. The department was also able to use the first appropriation to purchase the mounting and docking hardware as well as a program that was supposed to connect the Bosque Farms Police Department to the state.
"They could never make it work," Stidham said. "The company basically sold a package that they really couldn't deliver on — they weren't prepared to make the connection with the Department of Public Safety in Santa Fe."
While trying to get the problems worked out, Bosque Farms began working directly with the state's Department of Public Safety, which in turn, guided the department to get the correct software and hardware needed for the project. Stidham, with the second legislative appropriation of $50,000, bought modems for all the computers.
Along with Bosque Farms, only a handful of departments across the state use the high-tech laptop computers, including the New Mexico State Police, Albuquerque Police Department, Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department, the Town of Bernalillo and Hildago County Sheriff's Department. The Village of Los Lunas Police Department has about 20 similar laptops, but the program is not yet functional.
"The main reason why we wanted this system is because of the safety aspect it provides to the officers," Stidham said. "Because of the amount of traffic we run, it's going to make the officers much safer. It will also cut down time for the dispatchers. It's just a great tool."
The chief said there are a few other components the department still has to purchase, but he's hoping for additional funding in the coming year. Stidham said he hopes that money can be secured to purchase an attachment officers can use to swipe in information from driver's licenses instead of having to manually key in the data.
3 comments:
Im a Police officer is a neighoboring town! I would like to apply with you do you have openings? This is too cool big time in a small town! Good Job Chief!
I live in BF and have never had any problems with crime! Tell your guys GREAT JOB! Thanks Big Pig!
I have lived in BF for almost 30 years, been burglarized three times, son's girlfriends house broken into at 4 AM, no police response until 10:30 AM. Two of the burglars were identified by a neighbor from photos....no arrest, never even talked to the suspect...a 9 mm and a box of Black Talon rounds, Grandpas .22, mother- in law's .25, many irreplaceable items of sentiment. 7000 traffic tickets?...kinda like arresting hookers cause they are easy targets. Don't you wish we had a few so Big Pig would look even better with victimless crime?How 'bout a death threat going on two years? and not a word after I reported it 'til I called the PD and then they sent a pretty much blank copy of the report to me. And most of the fine money seems to be going back into the PD? Self serving? Nah!!!!!!!!!
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