http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20090708/HAMMONTON01/907080319
Police Dept. goes green with toner-less technology
HAMMONTON
N.J. — The town’s Police Department has implemented new technology
that dramatically reduces operating costs and eliminates almost all
paper and toner wastes.National Crime Information Center GREEN
technology wipes out the need for continuous printing and instead
creates readable files on an NCIC terminal.Up until now, every national
and local broadcast message that came in to the local dispatch from the
Criminal Justice Information Service was printed out separately on a
single sheet of paper. Over the course of one year, this amounts to
approximately 90,000 sheets of paper — the equivalent of 18 cases,
which cost $594 — and requires nine toner cartridges, which cost
$990.”We needed to replace our laser printer, which was estimated to
cost $1,200 in addition to our ongoing operating cost for the volume of
printer toner and paper that it would use,” said Computer Department
head Nick DeStefano. “Ninety-five percent of the 90,000 individual
printed broadcast messages had to be shredded by our dispatch staff for
security reasons using another costly piece of equipment.”
LawSoft’s
new software was purchased for $2,250, so the paperless system is
designed to pay for itself in less than two years.Police dispatchers
agree, reading the messages from a secure database is far superior from
a time and motion standpoint. Dispatchers are able to read through the
large quantity of messages sooner because they don’t have to wait for
them to be printed, and they can do so as they perform other functions
at their radio console or work station.The Hammonton Green Committee
commended the Police Department and the Computer Department for the
effort to reduce waste, use less energy, save money and minimize
negative effects on the environment.