Looking to upgrade

Outdated technology poses a safety risk to officers, says the city’s chief of police.

The Thunder Bay Police Service included upgrades to its equipment in the 2013 capital budget. The upgrades are done every five years to ensure the police force has the most up-to-date technology. The police force hopes to sole source purchase more than 30 mobile data terminals from Panasonic.

The cost of the laptops is around $90,000. Since the amount exceeds $60,000, the police have to go to city council before moving forward with the purchase.

The Panasonic is offering a 30 per cent discount and the laptops would be installed in 25 marked vehicles.

Thunder Bay police chief J.P. Levesque said outdated technology is a safety and efficiency issue.

“The current equipment in the cars is near obsolete,” he said. “We budgeted for this when we pushed the budget through at the end of 2012. Here we are in August and we haven’t bought the equipment yet. They aren’t always functioning properly so it becomes a bit of an issue with officer safety. We have to do what we need right now and we need this equipment.”

Officers would use the laptops as a secure communications tool as well as look up information through the database and includes a GPS tracking system.

Levesque suspects that the new laptops will be compatible with all other emergency services.

Police have also starting looking into wearable cameras as a way to protect officers and citizens. Levesque said they looked at car cameras but found that body-cameras might be a better option.

The two biggest issues though are privacy and storage.

Levesque added that they are still working out all the details before moving ahead.

Thunder Bay Police Services Board chair Joe Virdiramo said the police force has to upgrade its systems.

“These are going to be the latest and are going to improve our operations,” he said. “We certainly support the purchase. This is a sole source thing because it meets all the requirements. We have a policy within the city’s purchasing department that anything to do with a sole source over a certain amount of money has to seek approval of council. We want to make sure we’re in line of our policies and procedures.”

Virdiramo suspects that council will support the purchase when it comes on the agenda later in August.