BETHEL – Selectmen have unanimously endorsed a multitown application for a state grant to fund a police information systems upgrade.

If the upgrade is done, Bethel’s Crime Reporting Information System, fielded in Bethel in the late 1980s, early 1990s, would be replaced by a product offered by Spilman Technology, Town Manager Scott Cole said.

“The county dispatch and patrol already utilizes Spilman to some degree, and an expanded multitown standardization of information available to law enforcement officers makes sense,” he said.

“It seems to be the way to go,” he added.

Bethel police Chief Alan Carr has participated in several planning meetings with counterparts in the Norway and Paris police departments, and Oxford County Sheriff’s Department to create a multiagency application for state funding to upgrade and standardize an information system used in police work in the county.

Cole said the total grant application amount approaches $200,000, with Bethel envisioned to receive between $30,000 and $40,000 of the benefit.

“There is no local match contemplated at this time, but that could change,” he said.