Back when East Ridge Police Department Chief James Reed was in his patrol car, laptops would have saved him hours.
As for the difference, "It's night and day," he said.
East Ridge police ordered 14 new laptops to be installed in patrol cars, the department announced Tuesday. The money came from U.S. Department of Justice grants and selling off surplus materials.
Laptops in police cars nowadays are considered "a standard piece of equipment," just as sirens, blue lights and radios, Reed said. He hopes the 14 Panasonic computers will be in use by the end of the year. He also hopes the department can purchase even more computers for his patrol cars soon.
An officer from the East Ridge Police Department patrols the town one night.There's a delay in getting the computers operating because certain software has to be installed and only the state of Tennessee can do that, Reed said. Also, the IT department and police officers have to get on the same page, he said.
Reed has been police chief since Jan. 20, 2014, and getting the department caught up technology-wise was one of his main focuses. He looked around at what other departments were doing - Chattanooga, Red Bank and Hamilton County - and pushed for laptops.
He was able to get everybody in a room last October and begin the planning process.
"This will be a tremendous benefit to our officers," Reed said.
Without laptops, East Ridge police officers have had to come back to the office, type up a report on their desktop computers, and then go back into the field.
With laptops directly in their cars, they can type up reports right there on the scene. This means officers can stay in their area of patrol longer, Reed said.
"We're pretty good on our response times, I think everybody knows that," he said. "This will help a little bit more."
Contact staff writer Evan Hoopfer at ehoopfer@timesfreepress.com or @EvanHoopfer on Twitter or 423-757-6731.