Weeks after requesting their patrol cars be fitted with laptops, these officers are now claiming they should be paid more because they’re forced to use computers while on the job.

Residents in Framingham, MA, are fuming after the local police union requested extra pay for its officers. At the officers’ request, laptops were installed into patrol cars to help ease filing and paperwork-related duties. Now the union is claiming that the installation of computers is an unlawful change in the officers’ working conditions.

The Massachusetts Police Association (MPA) claims that being paid to learn the new tech is commonplace — in nearby Natick, MA, officers receive a 2% annual stipend “in recognition of the advanced technological skills.” Police in Newton earn an extra $1,215 a year, as well as overtime pay for computer training.

Framingham citizens claim the request takes advantage of the system. “What police officer today doesn’t know how to use a computer?” asked one resident.

MPA president Jim Machado claims, “It’s not only doing the reports. It’s the record-keeping and the retrieval and things of that nature which go into the total package, the total technological package.”

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Tags: Filing, Overtime, Police officers, Tech training, Union workers