West Kittanning Police to Receive New Technology

by Nathan Lasher

Local evil-doers will have a little bit more to deal with now that the West Kittanning Borough Council has announced its police force will receive some new technology during a public meeting held Tuesday evening.

“We have received a laptop for our police cruiser through the office of Jeff Pyle and the District Attorney’s office,” said West Kittanning Mayor Bernie Bowser, Jr. “We were somehow missed by the original shipment, but I talked to Jeff Pyle and he had it taken care of within hours. So, that’s a great thing for us. It will be a good tool to use out in the field. It’s going to be installed through the District Attorney’s office. Officer [Chris] Airgood already has a date to have it installed.”

According to Officer Airgood, the new technology will help him to spend more time in his car and speed up the process of his duties. “I’ll be able to run license plates and information for wanted persons right from the car to speed up the process,” he said. “You still have to call traffic stops in for safety purposes, but before, if you wanted information, you’d have to call 9-1-1 and they’d have to relay the information and it would have to go back. Now, with this laptop, it is speeding up the process. I should also be able to sync the computer in the car to the station computer so that I can print things out at the station. I could do my reports right from the car.”

Airgood stated that the new laptop is part of an initiative to help small-town police forces update their equipment and catch up with the times.  “They want police departments to be more proactive in the 21^st century. We want to get more modernized,” said Airgood. “The more modern equipment you have the better off you’re going to be. There is more stuff that you can do. It saves me time for paperwork. Now, I can run everything from the car and I can be out in the car more because I don’t have to keep running back to the station. It will be a lot easier and efficient for us. When I was in the Police Academy in ’99 only places out west and in the big cities could afford things like this, but now they’re making it affordable through grants where smaller towns can afford it, which gives us state-of-the-art equipment. It’s just better for everyone concerned.”