The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is going high-tech.

A $318,000 federal grant will allow the county to put networked laptop computers in officers’ vehicles. The move is expected to bring dramatic changes to the way county emergency workers communicate.

Douglas County law enforcement officers will benefit from a federal grant that will be used to improve equipment. Lawrence Police Officer Kristina Johnson used a laptop computer Thursday in her patrol car.

The grant also will allow installation of a computer data system that will benefit law-enforcement and firefighting operations in the county and area.

The system will give police officers access to criminal records and photographs of suspects while on patrol. Firefighters will be able to access building plans and other information that could help them attack a fire.

“It represents a significant improvement and change in communications as well as how emergency safety response occurs,” said Jim Denney, director of the Douglas County Emergency Communications Center.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office learned Thursday it would receive the $318,459 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and its Making Officer Redeployment Effective program.

The Sheriff’s Office will purchase more than a dozen laptop computers for use in patrol cars.

But most of the grant money will be used to pay for the computer data system police and fire agencies can access through their mobile terminals. Officers will be able to use the system to check a suspect’s crime record, view photographs of suspects or missing people and find other information.

“It just gives us a lot of new opportunities,” Sheriff Rick Trapp said.

For Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical, fire scene commanders could call up floor plans of businesses that are in the data system. That information could help firefighters or emergency rescue personnel do their jobs better.

“Depending on how the infrastructure (data system) is set up, we would be able to do some preplanning,” said Fire & Medical Deputy Chief Mark Bradford.

Township fire departments and police departments in Baldwin and Eudora also could access the system if they acquire mobile data terminals.

The Sheriff’s Office began researching grants and applying for them more than a year ago, Trapp said. The application for the grant announced Thursday was made on behalf of all Lawrence-area emergency agencies.

Lawrence Police have had laptop computers in their cars for about four years. Officers use them to write crime reports, access crime investigation information and check for outstanding local warrants.

Officers cannot run record checks for national warrants. Such requests must be made by dispatchers, Police Sgt. Mike Pattrick said.

Individual police officers and agencies will be able to use the new system to send messages they don’t want to be overheard on radios, Trapp said.

Neither Trapp nor Denney could say when the grant money would be received. Once it is, it will probably be at least four months before the equipment can be obtained and installed, Denney said.