When a person is arrested and charged with a serious offense, he is taken to a central booking station, located next to the jail. Arresting officers have been required to wait as the accused is processed, which usually takes between two and four hours. With 2,000 bookings per year, this is roughly 4,000-8,000 man hours. This is an incredible drain on smaller departments like Bangor, and sometimes means there is no one to patrol the streets.

As Bangor’s former mayor, this is a problem that bothered John Brown, who noticed that a police officer who made an arrest would be tied up at the booking center for most of his shift. As county executive, it’s a problem Brown has been able to fix, thanks to a group of county and local officials who worked together to streamline the process.

At a Jan. 13 news conference attended by enough police brass to form a marching band, Brown announced changes to the central booking system that will get police officers back on the street within 30 minutes.

Essentially, jail staff will assume responsibility for inmates at an earlier stage. According to Corrections Director Dan Keen, this is a revenue neutral change that will cause no increase in jail manpower or staff.

The nuts and bolts of this new approach were screwed together by Keen, Sheriff David Dalrymple, Easton Police Chief Carl Scalzo and Palmer Police Chief Larry Palmer.

Though Palmer supervises one of Northampton County’s larger police departments, he conservatively estimates that his officers are tied up 15-20 hours a month at central booking. This creates what he calls “gaps in police coverage.”

President Judge Stephen Baratta called this solution “good government at the local level,” and was pleased at the amount of cooperation between different governments and police departments. In his view this streamlining addresses complaints about public safety,reduces stress on magisterial district judges and ended up costing the county nothing. “I give the administration a lot of credit,” he said, adding that he and Brown have a “good working relationship.”

Magisterial District Judge Jim Narlesky assured everyone that defendants will still have a prompt preliminary arraignment. But how will he know what bail to set? That question was answered by magisterial District Judge Richard Yetter, who has been working as night judge for the past week.

Yetter said officers fill out a short background on each person brought in, including prior convictions and other factors to be considered in determining bail. If there is a pressing issue, he will contact pretrial services or the arresting officer.

Northampton County has used central booking since 2007. In a brief tour of the facility, it appears there are two holding cells and a separate room where a defendant can speak to the magisterial district judge.

If it gets crowded, “We’ve got plenty of room next door,” said Deputy Warden David Penchishen as he was searched before being admitted to central booking.