Nesquehoning is looking at a grant to supply its police department with a new device that would help get instant access to digital evidence.

On Wednesday, borough council approved Chief Sean Smith’s request at filing a 2020 Susteen Mobile Forensics Training grant application on behalf of the police department for approximately $3,640 for equipment and training. Nesquehoning would need to pay $6,335 for the software license.

The grant is for law enforcement agencies to obtain forensics software and training that can be used to access cellphone data during cases.

According to the grant background, law enforcement agencies currently have to ship cellphones to outside sources to obtain the digital evidence from them, which is time consuming and delays investigations.

The grant, if approved, would provide the department with digital technology to do forensic exams of mobile devices while at crime scenes or at the police station. The department currently has five full-time officers and three part-time officers on the force.

In other police matters, the borough voted to draft a job description for a detective within the department. The anticipated candidate would come from the current officers already employed by Nesquehoning.

The purchase of four in-car cameras was also approved. They will be covered in a grant that was recently awarded to the borough for the department.