Grant money will help create efficiencies in law enforcement
By Rebecca Ray
Thanks to a $110,820 technology grant from the state, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office is purchasing state-of-the-art safety equipment that will help traffic investigators do their job faster and more efficiently.
The state awarded the grant to the city of Saratoga for the purchase of high-tech safety equipment, and the city council and personnel at the sheriff's Westside Substation have developed a wish list of items to be used in Saratoga.
The state gave each city in California at least $100,000, to repay them for money used to balance the state's budget in the mid-1990s, said Saratoga City Manager Dave Anderson. Each city received a specific amount of money, depending on its population. The city council approved the spending of the grant money a few weeks ago.
The Saratoga City Council will use about $35,000, or about one-third of the money, for its own officers who enforce city ordinances, such as parking and noise regulations The sheriff's office will use approximately $75,500, or about two-thirds of the money, for traffic enforcement, which Saratoga residents have identified as a high priority, said Captain Jeff Miles of the Westside Substation.
The sheriff's accident reconstruction team, which investigates accidents that involve fatalities, or life-threatening injuries, currently measure lane dimensions with a tape measure. This process can take six to eight hours, even in a minor crash. The results are entered into one personal computer.
But the state money will buy a computer called a Nikon Total Station, which will take measurements electronically. The data will then be downloaded into two or three personal laptop computers, which will cost about $20,000, said sheriff's Deputy Pete Evangel.
With the new equipment, which can be used at crime scenes as well as traffic accidents, one deputy will stand on one corner of an intersection with the Nikon that has a lens, while another deputy will stand on another corner with a prism on a pole, and they will measure lane dimensions with a laser. The new gear will allow deputies to measure lanes in under an hour, in some cases.
Although the total station and tape measure perform equally, the new equipment will speed up investigations and be more efficient for the city, said sheriff's Deputy Craig Sontra, one of the members of the accident reconstruction team. Traffic officers will work less overtime and can devote more time to their regular full-time jobs, which include conducting DUI investigations and filing reports.
For example, a few weeks ago, when Sontra and two other deputies investigated an accident where a drunken driver ran into a tree, the deputies would have spent a total of 40 to 50 hours less, between the three of them, investigating the accident if they had had the new equipment, instead of the tape measure, Sontra said.
On the new computers, officers will type in everything they know about the vehicles involved in an accident, such as the year, make and model, and recreate the scene by typing in the measurements they took of the vehicles and the road. The computers will then interpolate what most likely happened, including how fast the vehicles were going, how far they skidded, and who was at fault.
The sheriff's office will also spend about $12,000 on a new accelerometer that uses a laser to measure the friction between tires and pavement. Those measurements can then be used to determine acceleration and deceleration rates. Other plans include purchasing a new digital camera for $900 that will take better pictures of accidents and crime scenes, and replacing the substation's manual scales that are used to weigh cars, with more accurate computerized scales that will cost about $1,000 apiece.
"This is going to be great," Evangel said. "We'll be able to do higher-quality law enforcement work and higher-quality investigations, especially on serious traffic matters."
The sheriff's office also plans to spend about $12,000 on a new radar trailer that will tell drivers their speed and warn them when they go over the limit; between $4,000 and $5,000 for a liquid crystal display projector for presentations; and just under $10,000 for three or four desktop computers, which will enable the Substation to have an email system.
The sheriff's office also plans to purchase eight to 10 hand-held radar guns for traffic and beat officers to measure speed. According to Sontra, the department plans to buy both regular radar guns and new laser radar guns, which are just as accurate in measuring speed, but are more accurate in identifying particular cars. Both types of guns are being purchased because the new laser guns cost three to four times more than the regular ones, Sontra said.
The city of Saratoga also plans to spend about $16,000 on faster, more powerful and more efficient software that will monitor each violation that occurs; about $7,000 on a server upgrade, which is needed for the new software to run; about $3,000 on faster computers for the two code enforcement officers; about $2,000 on two digital cameras that will be used to take pictures of violations; about $500 for a printer; and about $200 for a scanner, city Administrative Services Director Mary Jo Walker said.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
