CENTRAL FALLS — Central Falls police dispatcher Jazmin Rivera is answering calls when a woman walks up to the lobby window at the police station. Rivera talks with the woman while the other dispatcher, Eileen Crenshaw, who is at another area handles police calls.

Not long ago the two women would have to reach around each other while one attended people at the window and the other handled police calls, Rivera said. Now there are two independent work stations with new radio consoles and computers that allow the women to work independently.

Rivera’s station has a new digital flat screen monitor that allows her to watch the lockup and the police grounds. She also can control access to different areas of the police station with her fingertips. Before, the dispatcher had to go to the back of the room to press controls.

The equipment is among the many items the Police Department has purchased in the past year and a half with a $350,000 federal grant that Rep. Patrick Kennedy helped them get.

So far the department has spent about $200,000, but Maj. Clay Choquette said that officers have helped him save $50,000 on purchases so the department will resubmit a budget for other items it would like to purchase with money it has saved.

Police officers now each have a laptop computer for use in vehicles, so officers on the road can call up records of suspects and their licenses, Choquette said. The department has purchased an archiving system that will allow it to electronically archive the thousands of paper records it now has.

“Having the computers keeps the officers on the street where they should be,” Choquette said.

Choquette refers to the TV show CSI when he talks about some of the new equipment the department has gotten or is going to get.

One room will be filled with such items as a drying chamber that helps to dry items recovered at crime scenes such as a blood-soaked shirt. Another piece of equipment helps police to lift fingerprints off porous surfaces such as wood or paper. There are casting kits for getting shoe prints.

The department is getting Blue Max, which will help identify body fluids not visible to the eye.