Police Agencies Win Grants

Five Orange County police departments--Buena Park, Fountain Valley, Irvine, La Habra and Westminster--will share $797,000 in federal grants aimed at upgrading computers and freeing officers from administrative duties so they can spend more time patrolling the streets.

The program, now in its third year, gives agencies money to hire civilian employees as administrators, freeing officers for patrols and community-oriented service. The money also may be spent on equipment that increases efficiency and results in less desk work for officers.

The money will be allocated to Buena Park, $37,770; Fountain Valley, $75,000; Irvine, $287,192; La Habra, $126,116; and Westminster, $270,840.

Fountain Valley will use its allocation to update the mobile computer units in squad cars, which should save time by making them more efficient, Police Chief Elvin G. Miali said.

“We felt it would be more beneficial to the guys on the streets as well as give them more patrol time,” he said.

In Westminster, the money will put 20 more laptop computers in department patrol cars and a new fingerprint system in the jail, Chief James Cook said.

Each department wrote a grant proposal asking the U.S. Department of Justice for allocations from what is known as the COPS MORE program.