By Heather Wells
The Idaho Falls Post Register
IDAHO FALLS — Chris Elverud isn’t used to spending so much time on the road.
An Idaho State Police trooper for 13 years, Elverud’s spent a lot of time filling out paperwork in his office on Foote Drive in Idaho Falls.
That’s not the case anymore.
Thanks to the new mobile data computer mounted in his cruiser, Elverud spends less time in the office. Instead, he can type up his reports in the front seat of his patrol car.
It not only keeps him on the street, where he’s more likely to run into bad guys, but it also saves gas.
“This is long overdue,” Elverud said. “We can now be in the public eye a lot more than we used to.""
The devices are also making dispatchers’ jobs a little easier.
A trooper can now run driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations and warrant checks through the computer (before, officers were forced to call dispatch for the information).
“It cuts down on the amount of work for us, and we can concentrate more on phone calls from the public,” said Marc Camin, an ISP dispatch supervisor.
Roughly half of the patrol cars in ISP’s Region 6 office are equipped with the computers, which cost about $5,000 plus a monthly fee of $49.99 for a Verizon air card.
“We’re doing all of this stuff right in our own cars, and it’s all about the public’s safety,” Lt. Chris Weadick said.
Nearly half of Region 6’s fleet is outfitted with the devices, and all new vehicles will be equipped with them (about a third of the fleet is replaced annually).
The computers aren’t the only way Elverud’s job is changing.
The ISP is looking at implementing an electronic citation device. The tool would allow officers to print out tickets and citations (which will automatically be sent to the ISP office and the courts) and scan vehicle registration bar codes and driver’s licenses.
A similar computer system is in the works for the Idaho Falls Police Department and the Bonneville County sheriff’s office.
""It’s going to put our people back on the street quicker, which is really a good thing,"" said Lt. Samuel Hulse of the sheriff’s office.
Elverud couldn’t agree more.
“The future is bright,” he said. “We now have information readily available at our fingertips.”
Copyright 2008 The Post Register