MERIDEN, Conn. -- Next spring, the Meriden police will be the first department in New England with a new, cutting edge computer system that promises to provide a huge jump over the technology officers now use.

Meriden’s neighborhood associations are excited about the new police software that will give the public access to accident reports, customized crime data and the ability to e-mail the officers that patrol their particular streets on the data terminals in their cruisers.

Currently, the Meriden Police Department is building mapping software that officers will soon use in their patrol cars. It’s all part of the Sungard system that police will switch to.

Huge servers will house one single new piece of software that will handle a number of things the department now uses with different programs.

The system, which costs $1 million, will only cost the city $75,000 because Meriden, along with the city of Milford, are demonstration sites for the software. Also, Meriden is going to be using asset forfeiture funds seized from criminals.