Iron River Police Department uses $6K grant for needed upgrades

IRON RIVER, Mich. (WLUC) - An Iron County police department is making equipment upgrades, thanks to a grant. AED machines are two pieces of equipment the Iron River Police Department just purchased. The department was awarded a $6,000 grant from Enbridge for the upgrades.

“We had one AED per police car,” said Curt Harrington, Iron River Police Department Chief. “Two of them had become obsolete. They were out of style, broken down, they needed to be replaced anyway.”

Harrington said each AED costs about $1,700 and the department has three patrol cars. He said being a part of a small department includes having a tight budget but having working AEDs is essential.

“When we go out in the public and have a medical call and we might have to do CPR or first aid on someone, we need an AED,” Harrington said. “Having a brand new one is great.”

The department also purchased $500 worth of new citation pads. Harrington said the department was running low, and the state of Michigan changed what information needs to be on the pad.

“Now we ask drivers or anyone we are issuing a citation to for their email and phone number,” Harrington said. “That now needs to be on the citation. So, we had to buy all brand-new books.”

The rest of the grant money went towards buying a new computer for the department secretary. The Iron River Police Department also just received new body cameras. The video needs to be archived on the computer after it is used.

“The secretary will download all of the body camera footage onto this computer,” Harrington said. “The old computer did not have enough storage. The new computer we got has been great.”

Harrington said this new computer has a terabyte of storage. In the future, he said he hopes to receive more grants to add computers in all three patrol cars. Purchasing and installing the three computer systems could cost upwards of $20,000.

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