A plan to hire two more sheriff’s deputies and buy wireless Internet connections for 200 laptop computers used in patrol cars has won approval from the Snohomish County Council.
A 5-0 vote this week set the $415,000 plan in motion.
A Wi-Fi system is long-awaited, and will make things “easier for the guys in the cars,” Sheriff Rick Bart said.
“It will save at least an hour of time on every deputy’s shift,” he said.
Bart said deputies will be able to “make an arrest, make all the entries in the computer, push a button and it all goes to the jail.”
The technology upgrade also is part of a concerted effort to cut down on overtime costs in the Sheriff’s Office, Bart said.
“The wireless connection allows deputies to do more work out of the car and not return to the precincts and waste time,” Bart said.
Adding wireless connections to laptops used by sheriff’s deputies will connect them to Internet search engines, phone directories, e-mail, jail systems, mug shots, new crime mapping software, automatic vehicle-locating systems and training updates.
The $415,000 was set aside by the County Council in this year’s budget pending a plan for how to spend it on a combination of technology upgrades and more deputies.
The Sheriff’s Office has more than 260 budgeted positions. Bart said he hasn’t decided where the two new deputies will be assigned.
Bureau chiefs are debating where the two new deputy positions should be assigned, he said. Possibilities include patrol, detectives and special operations, or crime analysis.
It could take up to six months to fill the positions, he said. Fourteen deputy positions are open, and only nine future deputies will soon graduate from the police academy, he said.
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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