The city of Snoqualmie is spending nearly $31,000 to equip its police department with five new mobile computer terminals.

The new computers replace models installed in 2004.

Police Chief Jim Schaffer said the old models worked fine at first, but have become problematic five years later.

Their software isn’t meant to handle modern dispatching methods, and the way they were installed makes it harder for city technicians to service them.

New terminals save officers time and prevent confusion when they look up a car’s license plate record or receive and report information from a dispatcher.

“It will make their mobile office — their vehicle — a better mobile office,” Schaffer said.

As a consequence, officers are going to catch more illegal drivers and people sought by warrants in the community.

The old computers were made up of a screen and keyboard in the front of the squad car, with the computer body and hard drive in the trunk. Current models will be self-inclusive, armored laptops, allowing officers to detach them from the car console and carry them indoors to write reports.

The new terminals could save the department thousands of dollars a year, by decreasing the departments’ reliance on radio dispatch through Issaquah Police Department. Snoqualmie is billed by Issaquah based on how much it uses radio time.

The computers will be installed in about four weeks.

Currently, pairs of officers share squad cars and computer terminals.

The computers come in tough, rubberized case, and have touchscreens as well as backlit keyboards for typing at night.