JAY – Police officer Brad Timberlake opened up the laptop computer in his cruiser and typed in a license plate number.

The registered owner, make of the car and driving history popped up on the screen.

If there had been a warrant out for the driver’s arrest, a red space marked warrants would have lit up.

The Jay Police Department has added wireless networking to its cruisers in a project that has been under way for more than a year, police Chief Larry White Sr. said Thursday.

Jay was among several police departments to get a grant to get a new computer software program called Information Management Corp. known as IMC.

The computer software and some new computers were acquired through a nearly $70,000 grant to Jay from the Department of Homeland Security in 2006 with no matching funds necessary from the town.

The front-line cruiser has the computer and a second one is expected to be added to the overlap cruiser, White said.

The department has connected networks with Lewiston, Auburn and most of the law enforcement agencies in Androscoggin, York and Kennebec counties, White said.

In the future, others will be able to network with Rangeley police and the University of Maine at Farmington police, White said. Livermore Falls police also have the IMC technology.

With the program, police may check records at all of those agencies from the computer in the cruiser or in the police station. They also can do reports in their cruisers if they want to and send them electronically to the main data base at the police station.

Officers may also access police reports in the network and find out if suspects may have committed a similar crime in the same way in the past or if they have bail conditions, White said.

“It’s a real good investigative tool,” White said.

It runs very smoothly, Timberlake said as he demonstrated how the computer system worked.

It keeps you from having to go back to the station and type in the information and allows you to put in the data while its fresh in your mind, Timberlake said.

“It really cuts back on radio traffic,” he said, especially if the Franklin Sheriff’s dispatchers are busy.

Before officers log on to the computer in the cruiser, they have to sign in at the station, White said.

“This can save valuable time in which the officer does not have to come into the station to close reports, thus allowing more patrol time on the streets,” he said, adding that he’s impressed with the system.