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Several Municipalities Reject County's Police Computer Plan: About a Fourth of the Departments in Berks? Decide to Buy Replacement Laptops for Their Vehicles Outright Rather Than Having the County Hold Money in Escrow.

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Keith Mayer, Reading Eagle, Pa.

Jan. 10--About a quarter of the municipal police departments in Berks County have opted out of a county plan to escrow money during the next four years to replace laptop computers for police vehicles, but they expect to be able to pay for them anyway.

Nine of 39 departments will not escrow the money, but have agreed to pay for laptops in 2010, when the equipment is expected to be purchased.

In late 2005, the county requested all departments put the money for computers in an escrow account, but some departments objected to giving the money to the county before 2010.

The county then agreed to give the departments a choice in how to pay in 2010.

Twenty-five departments will participate in the escrow and five have not responded, said Craig S. Breneiser, director of the county communications center.

The city police department has its own laptop program.

The computers are expected to cost about $4,000 apiece, so participating municipalities will escrow about $1,000 per computer per year for the next four years. For some that bill will total $30,000 to $50,000.

The first payment is due Feb. 1, Breneiser said.

The nine municipalities that have said they won't participate include Spring and Exeter townships and Wyomissing -- three of the five largest departments outside Reading.

A total of 190 laptop computers are in vehicles operated by 39 departments.

The total cost to replace that many laptops is nearly $1 million.

The county now is in the second round of replacing laptops to police vehicles and the project is being paid for by Department of Homeland Security money and 9-1-1 surcharge fees, which are charged to telephone customers.

The laptops were first distributed in 2000 and 2001 using state and federal funds.

Breneiser does not think grants will not be available when it is time to replace the laptops in 2010 and says municipalities should begin to put money now.

Spring Township Police Chief Michael S. Messner said the issue is one of responsibility.

"It's my responsibility to fund the equipment, and I take that responsibility seriously," he said.

Michael P. Weiser, deputy chief of Berks-Lehigh Regional police, based in Maxatawny Township, said that the $16,000 needed each year for the laptop project is a small part of the department's $2 million annual budget and that the cost will not be a hardship.

Bern Township supervisors originally wanted to escrow money with the county, but decided to save money on their own after the county gave municipalities a choice.

"I'm a bad supervisor if I can't come up with $40,000 out of a $3 million budget to buy laptops," Supervisor George Cush said. "We can fund ourselves. We thought we could handle our money better than they (the county) could."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Reading Eagle, Pa.

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Source: Reading Eagle

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