Police lock, door system OK'd by city

Email To A Friend
Printer Friendly
Comments

---

by Miles Jung-Kilbreath

Reporter

Streetsboro -- Police will no longer have to lock prisoners into their cells with a manual key, after City Council approved $17,000 in computer equipment to monitor and control doors in the police station.

Mayor Tom Wagner said he is for the purchase, because he doesn't want to open up the city to liability by not being able to properly secure suspects.

Council unanimously approved the purchase of the computer equipment from B&C Communications April 28.

Police Chief Richard Taiclet told City Council the new computer system will control the internal locking of all the doors in the police station, including the cell doors that hold suspects and garage doors for vehicles. He said doors currently have to be manually locked with a key.

Law Director David Benjamin said Council could approve a purchase without seeking additional bids, because of the danger to officers and prisoners with doors that could not be controlled by a computer.

B&C Communication Sales Associate Mike Szebo said his company, which is contracted to perform maintenance on police department computers, sent the computer that operates the garage door back to the manufacturer MTI for repair for an estimated cost of $4,000 in January.

Szebo said he learned from MTI the garage door computer is no longer serviced by the company, so a new computer system would be needed.

While the new contract would include full support, Szebo said it's hard to say how long MTI would support the product.

The new system would be the "current model," he added.

The new computer, which would include a new CPU, a monitor with a touch screen, and a processor system, would only be used to control the doors and automatically lock them in the building, he said.

E-mail:
mjung-kilbreath@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-686-3942