Watch CBS News

Councilman: It's Time For NYPD To Quit Using Typewriters

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Queens city councilman said Thursday that it is time for the NYPD to do away with a piece of technology that has been considered antiquated for decades.

Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-25th) told 1010 WINS he has seen typewriters in use all around NYPD precinct stations, and said it is time for the department to catch up to contemporary times and begin using computers for everything.

"The NYPD is using 19th-century technology to solve 21st-century crimes, and it's time for them to move into the 21st century," Dromm said.

Dromm was to introduce legislation that would do away with typewriters at the NYPD by 2016, according to a New York Post report.

He pointed out that a typed sheet of paper can get lost easily, and cannot be the only record police keep of a crime report or other documentation.

"Constituents have a hard time locating copies of typewritten crime reports, accident reports, sound permits, things like that – and two, once you put it into a computer, it doesn't get lost, and so for just those reasons alone, I think we really need to move into the 21st century," Dromm said.

Dromm said he has seen typewriters in use throughout the NYPD.

"Some of the detectives are using them. Some of the time, you see them in the main desks when you come in. Oftentimes you'll see them in community relations," he said. "But I see them in various locations in precincts that I've been in throughout the city."

He said he wonders how the NYPD is still even to maintain the devices.

"I don't even know where they're able to get parts, or typewriter ribbon or white-out to continue to use typewriters, but we need to change that, and we need to change that as soon as possible," Dromm said.

Back in 2012, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the continued use of typewriters and the money spent to maintain them.

"Particularly in old-line government organizations, there's still lots of forms where we have to fill them out in duplicate, and a computer doesn't do that well and they still use it," Bloomberg said in January 2012. "Nobody's using a typewriter because they want to. They're using a typewriter because they have to."

As of 2012, 18 city agencies were using a total of more than 1,000 typewriters -- including the NYPD, the Department of Buildings, and the Human Resources Administration.

"They still have a function, and your belief that typewriters have gone away is just erroneous. There are companies that make typewriters around the world," Bloomberg said at the time. "It's like books. Some people, believe it or not, still read books in paper."

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.