Each officer is required to complete a six-hour training course in order to use the computer. Marcum said the MDTs allow officers to do in their cars what they previously depended on communications dispatchers to do, via high-frequency radio waves. The units connect the officers with a state criminal information network. The computers work using the keyboard or touch-screen commands. Officers can get a driver's history, check on stolen articles, concealed weapon permits, incidents of domestic violence and sex offender registrations.
Officers can also check on where other officers are.
Eventually officers will be able to take incident reports on the computers. Right now, three officers are approved for using a Computer Crash Program, which calculates speed from skid marks. They can do so from their cars, which have that program. Officers can remove the laptops from the vehicles. Three grants are paying for the MDTs one each from the Governor's Crime Commission, the Governor's Highway Safety Program, a local law enforcement block grant program, and matching funds from the city of Wilson.