REPORT ON COMPUTERS WORRIES POLICE PANEL.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

Police Commission members voiced concern Tuesday about a report from a city-hired consultant that it will cost up to $267 million to improve the LAPD's computer technology and that the department may be heading in the wrong direction with upgrades already approved.

The panel agreed to form a task force to consider implementing recommendations by the consultant, Mitretek Systems, and to examine whether the the city can afford the cost and whether money is being wasted on the current approach to technology.

Commissioner Art Mattox said he is particularly troubled that the consultant is recommending the city give field officers laptop computers instead of mobile digital terminals (MDTs), just months after the City Council and Police Commission voted to approve a $26 million contract to install upgraded MDTs. The MDT is built into the patrol car, while a laptop may be carried in and out of the vehicle.

``I was absolutely flabbergasted when I saw the recommendation that we need to move away from the MDT and toward the laptop,'' Mattox told his fellow commissioners and the consultants during a hearing on the report.

``Is your report saying that the $26 million is wasted money?'' Mattox asked. ``I am very concerned that this report comes out and says we're going in the wrong direction.''

Mitretek spokesman William Zeiner said he believes laptops would give field officers access to more information and functions than would MDTs. But the city could switch when the newly purchased MDTs reach the end of their life in about five years, Zeiner said. The computers are part of a proposal to automate the LAPD.