Peabody police department receives equipment grant
Peabody Police Chief Jeff Pohlman has been notified that his department will be the recipient of a block grant to purchase additional equipment for officers.
The grant, for which Pohlman applied earlier this year, was approved in the amount of $3,802.94. The department received a check for $3,422.65 and the city of Peabody will make up the balance in "match funds."
Pohlman said he will use the money to purchase three handguns for his department so that all the officers will have the same type of weapon. He will use some of the funds to purchase a hand-held radar detector and an additional laptop computer for use in the police vehicles.
Additional funding for equipment is available to the police department from the city diversion fund. Pohlman said there is enough in that fund to buy the last two laptop computers necessary to have each patrol car outfitted with a computer.
"We initially got one about a year ago on a trial basis," said Pohlman. "The idea is that with the computer on board, our officers can stay on the street more because they don't have to return to the office to file reports and do paper work so often.
"The first one worked really well and we decided to purchase one for each of the vehicles. The computers will allow the officers on duty to be more visible to the community because some of the paper work can now be done while they are in their cars," Pohlman added.
In other department news, Pohlman said that he and school superintendent Tom Alstrom will be attending a seminar in Washington, D.C., Jan. 26 to 28. The seminar trains police and school officials to understand the criteria for identifying a missing or exploited child. Federal funds have been made available to pay for Pohlman and Alstrom to attend the seminar.
