Irony Alert: New York City pays $1 million for typewriters

Here we are complaining about users who don't upgrade from Windows XP.

But what about updating to computers and printers altogether?

A story in the New York Post this morning notes that New York City is paying nearly $1 million on typewriters for NYPD police officers.

The Post reports:

Despite the adoption of high-tech equipment that can read license plates from the air and detect radiological events before they happen, manual and electric typewriters continue to be used throughout the NYPD -- and they won't be phased out anytime soon, officials told The Post.

In fact, just last year, the city signed a $982,269 contract with New Jersey-based Swintec for the purchase of thousands of new manual and electric typewriters over the next three years -- some of which retail for as much as $649 apiece.

And last month, the city signed a $99,570 deal with Afax Business Machines in Manhattan for the maintenance of its existing Brother, Panasonic and IBM Selectric typewriters.

Apparently, though most of the NYPD's arrest-report forms have been computerized, officers still use typewriters to fill out property and evidence vouchers that are printed on carbon-paper forms.

There's even a quote in the article noting that officers scramble for ribbons when they run out.

Ctrl+P, anyone?