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NYPD Spends $1 Million On Typewriters

EdIII writes "Despite having most, if not all, of it's arrest forms computerized, the NYPD has spent nearly $1M dollars on new typewriters for its police officers to fill out property and evidence vouchers with carbon copies. Regardless of complaints from police officers about inefficiency, lack of common sense, and slow processing, typewriters are not going to be phased out anytime soon according to officials. As one cop put it, 'We have to sneak around the rest of the precinct in search of a ribbon to steal.' According to one study by Dr. Edith Linn, outdated equipment is part of the reason for officers being averse to making arrests for less-serious crimes. However, it's not all bad news, for the typewriter companies at least."

1 of 11 comments (clear)

  1. Might have a point by downix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This form of redundancy (carbon copy + ribbon copy) eliminates the possibility of post-editing by electronic form. The word document version of word processing. This makes a lot of sense for an organization that is dragged into court thousands of times a year. No virus infection to alter reports, or force reinstall of OS, no hdd crashes, no backup fails, just a simple straightforward typewriter.

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