By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

NORWAY – The Oxford County Sheriff’s Department should know soon whether it will receive a federal homeland security grant in excess of $300,000 to purchase equipment for police cruisers.

“Our fingers are crossed,” Lt. Ed Quinn said Thursday.

The department filed all required paperwork by mid-July. Quinn said an answer from the federal government has been delayed due to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which diverted staff and resources to the response and recovery efforts.

The money would pay for mobile data terminals in 44 police cruisers from the Sheriff’s Department and the towns of Oxford, Norway, Mexico and Dixfield. The equipment would give access to county law enforcement records from officers’ cruisers.

The grant would also pay for upgraded transmitters and receivers for remote mountain sites in Oxford County that would enable officers to communicate with the Department of Motor Vehicles in Augusta from their laptops to obtain motor vehicle information.

“They would be talking directly to DMV, which they cannot do now,” Quinn said.

The four police departments joined the grant process by paying the necessary licensing fees to gain access to county law enforcement records. The licensing fees are required by Spillman Technologies Inc., a Utah company that develops records management and data-sharing products for public safety agencies. The Sheriff’s Department has been using it since 1988.

Quinn said Fryeburg and Bethel police also are considering paying the licensing fees so they can come online. “They have the intentions to go on the system,” he said. “Each town has to come up with their one-time (licensing) fee.”

The licensing fee varies depending on a number of factors, including the size of a police department, but typically costs several thousand dollars.

The lack of information sharing among law enforcement agencies was cited by the federal 9/11 Commission as a factor that contributed to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Quinn said giving town police departments access to county law enforcement records will help ensure that officers at different agencies are privy to the same information.

Officers would also be able to complete follow-up reports to 911 calls on their laptops, rather than completing them at a station. “It keeps the officer on the road,” Quinn said.