FARMINGTON – The Farmington Police Department has received the $12,538 Justice Assistance Grant that they applied for in July.

The grant, issued by the United States Justice Department, will be used to upgrade four of the department’s four cruiser laptops to Mobile Data Terminals. The terminals will allow an officer to access more information from the cruiser when a vehicle is stopped, Police Chief Richard Caton said. License, registration and in-house records will be available from the cruiser, as well as information that could provide more safety for the officer if there is an indication of past problems.

Caton is in the process of completing the final paperwork and waiting to receive the money in order to begin implementing the program, he said.

In the proposal narrative, prepared by Sgt. Shane Cote, the department made 8,202 traffic stops in 2006 that were called in to the Franklin Dispatch Center. One of two dispatchers then ran the registration and drivers’ license check through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

The Dispatch Center, he said, now functions for five law enforcement agencies, with the addition of Jay Police this June. The dispatches are done on a radio frequency which is reaching its saturation point in terms of volume of calls, he said.

Police agencies now also run daily registration and license checks from motor vehicle crashes, driving complaints, bail checks and multiple warrant checks through dispatch. The center also dispatches ambulances from four separate bases and for 17 fire departments.

The program would be a pilot project, Cote said, that, if successful, would encourage other agencies to share information through Mobile Data Terminals. A goal would be to reduce the number of calls to dispatch and give officers on the street access to the department’s databases and the state’s system, he said.

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