The Cops That Time Forgot

The NYPD is still using typewriters for some of their reports. And spending up to $1M a year to do so.

Public records show that the city signed a $432,900 contract for typewriter maintenance with Afax Business Machines in 2008, as well as a $99,570 contract with that company in 2009. Typewriter company Swintec received a $982,269 contract from the city in 2007. Eugene O'Donnell, a former New York police officer who now lectures at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the typewriters are an anachronism -- and a waste. "The two places you'd find typewriters are the museum and the police department," O'Donnell said. Typewriters create significant efficiency and storage problems for the department, he added, causing extra labor and unwieldy paper trails. Deputy Commissioner Browne emphasized that "we have a $4 billion budget" and the financial resources devoted to typewriters are relatively miniscule.

I'm very sure I would have done better in college were it not for typewriters. Snarled ink ribbons, correction tape, Wite-Out, and much screaming is what I remember, not the work. Then again, at least I could type, something relatively few guys could do back then. That, at least, was the payoff for being the only boy in Mrs. Porter's 8th grade typing class, something for which I endured more "fag" taunting than anything else I did.