Herkimer County Sheriff Christopher Farber, and Under-sheriff George Treen, Jr., delivered new computer equipment to the Town of Webb Police Department on Tuesday, an expenditure funded by a 2009 Homeland Security Grant.
“For the last couple of years, Sheriff Farber and his department have given us an immense amount of security technology and the object is to network the station with the outside community and to give us more memory capability,” said Town of Webb Police Chief, John Russell, who accepted the delivery.
Chief Russell said that his department constantly receives memos from state agencies and Homeland Security, and the new equipment will provide an expanded memory base to save the memos and research them.
“Information sharing is a big thing today between different agencies, whether it’s the local, county or federal government,” said Sheriff Farber.
Farber had been working on the Homeland Security Grant since 2009. It is now providing the new computer equipment to the Town of Webb and seven other agencies in Herkimer County.
“This is expensive equipment—$4,500—and I honestly don’t have that in my budget,” Russell said.
“I’m very grateful to Sheriff Farber’s department who administered this grant to give us this type of equipment,” he added. “Daily updates about arrests and federal wanted persons throughout the state is now being shared by servers and computers like this.”
The new equipment includes a Server and five accessories that will make it possible to integrate two of the department’s programs which will save the taxpayers money, according to Russell.
“The officer will be able to do his reports in the car [on mobile computer], then send it to the station’s Tracs system, putting it in the proper category,” Russell said.
Officers will be able to patrol the roads longer because they will not have to spend an hour to an hour and a half doing reports at the station, according to Russell.
It will also make Russell’s job easier because he will be able to review their reports and transport the information to the other officers.
“Our communication here is excellent,” said Russell, “but this will give each officer an internal network, and its going to improve efficiency.”
The new equipment should be fully integrated into the station’s operations by the first part of the summer, according to Russell.
