The St. Petersburg, Florida, Police Department was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Justice to expand applications of laptop computers. Dr. McEwen served on the Advisory Board for this project to provide direction on developing applications and evaluating the use of the laptop computers. All patrol officers were issued laptop computers for preparing incident and arrest reports. These reports were transmitted by cellular phone into a microcomputer database. The reports were then available for analysis and distribution to appropriate units of the department. This "paperless" method of preparing reports is an innovative technological development that is gaining popularity in many police agencies.