KIMBALL -- The Kimball Police Department received approval from the city council Tuesday evening to install in-car computers in their cruisers. 

This approval came after the department secured two grants that will cover the full cost of the computers, installation and training – one from the Nebraska Department of Transportation and the other from an anonymous donor. 

“The new system will offer a lot of added tools at our disposal, one thing is bringing us into the modern age, we’ve been behind for a very long time,” Chief of Police Jose Ruiz told News Channel Nebraska.

“Right now, all we can do is run our CAD system, which is basically the dispatch system, to see calls and communicate with dispatch, but having actual computers that are compatible with our systems is going to change a lot of things for us.” 

A few big aspects the computer system will bring are the ability to write electronic citations, write reports, and look up driver license statuses, criminal histories and vehicle registrations while out in the field. 

“This will allow officers to have direct access to information and be able to review that information in the field,” Ruiz said. “A big benefit will be allowing us to stay out in the public a lot more by getting paperwork done in our vehicles – like accident reports and generating case numbers for people – rather than going back to the department to do it all.” 

KPD Admin Assistant Rachael Hudson said, “Technically by law, all law enforcement agencies should have computers in their car and they should be issuing e-citations, and Kimball has received a waiver for that because they’re a smaller department.”

She added that NDOT informed the department about the available grant that would help them get the computers for the cars.  

“By getting the grant, we are able to abide by state statute and have equipment that meets the same standards as other law enforcement agencies in the state,” she said.