NORWAY – Police departments in Oxford County may better coordinate their law enforcement efforts by sharing computer software.

Norway Police Chief Rob Federico has been working on a grant application that would help Norway and Paris pay for rights to use software already in place at the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department. Federico on Friday said towns including Bethel, Dixfield and Mexico also have expressed interest in the software.

The software, he said, “does all kinds of things.” It is produced by Spillman Technologies Inc. of Utah, which exclusively develops programs for use by law enforcement agencies.

Federico’s ultimate goal is to have what he calls “mobile data systems.”

While most police departments have supplied their cruisers with laptops, he said, the computers are not connected to any dispatch center. Officers may type accident reports in their cars, for example, but cannot check the background of an individual they pulled over or a person they have arrested while responding to a neighborhood dispute.

The grant Federico is applying for is administered by the state Department of Administration Services, he said. The maximum grant award is $200,000. Because Federico may be working on the grant application with other towns, he said he’s likely to apply for about $150,000.

“Without the grant (the software) would be approximately $33,000, but there would be a server and some other stuff, so I’m going to say $35,000 without the grant,” Federico said.

Oxford County Sheriff Skip Herrick said sharing software with more police departments will improve communications and also cut costs.

The system handles basic reports from each enhanced 911 call routed through the sheriff’s department dispatch center, and lists names of people who have made or been involved with 911 calls, or who have been arrested and placed in jail.

There are more than two million incidents and one million names recorded in the system, Herrick said. Oxford County receives 911 calls for all towns but Rumford, he said, which has its own dispatch center and software.

Spillman “is our lifeline as far as data,” Herrick said.

The Oxford Police Department went online with the Spillman system in March. “It’s great,” Oxford Lt. John Tibbetts said.

He likes the fact that incident reports are automatically started when a call is placed through the system. In addition, Tibbetts said having access to basic incident files and the name records has made a difference for his department.

Federico noted that the grants are competitive. Also, if the town is awarded money to buy the Spillman software, it doesn’t mean the department will have everything it needs for his dream of mobile data systems.

However, Federico said, “Spillman is like the first step.”