BOSTON -- Residents in Framingham are talking about a new cost to the town courtesy of the local police union, which says officers need to be paid more because they use computers.

Debate broke out at the last Framingham Town Meeting after members were asked to approve extra pay for the police officers whose union said $41,000 a year would settle a its claim that a new requirement to file reports on a computer was an unlawful change in working conditions.

Survey | Cops Earn Extra Pay For Using Computers

"The police department asked us to fund laptops for the cruisers and now that we provided them they're suing us because we're making them use them?" asked Rebecca Connolly, a Town Meeting member.

"Do we not allocate this money to them and give them crayons?" quipped Steve Orr, another Town Meeting member.

The computer stipend would be paid in addition to the extra pay all Framingham officers already get for defibrillator use, fingerprinting and photography.

Town Meeting member Jim Rizoli was part of the majority who voted to shoot down the proposal.

"It's taking advantage of the goodness of the people and the town to pay you for something you should already know how to do," Rizoli said. "Think about it. What police officer today does not know how to use a computer?"

In nearby Natick, Mass., however, officers get a 2 percent annual stipend in "recognition of the advanced technological skills Natick patrol officers possess".

Newton police also get paid an extra $1,215 a year plus two hours of computer training at overtime pay.

"It just doesn't pass the straight-face test," said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "Obviously, they shouldn't be paying any time. But it's particularly egregious given incredible fiscal pressures the state's facing and cities and towns are facing."

Team 5 Investigates tried to talk to the union's attorney, police and the town's lawyer, but no one wanted to talk on camera because they're still negotiating.

The Massachusetts Police Association said stipends are common, but a Team 5 review of police contracts found computer stipends seem to be isolated to Metrowest.

"There's an increased training," said Jim Machado, MPA president. "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."

Widmer said taxpayers should be wary.

"Police officers have a critical job and they get paid for that," Widmer said. "But these extra creative ways of padding the paycheck really are not appropriate, and undercut the bond with the taxpayers."

The police union, however, has a different take.

"When these jobs become where the ability to earn money isn't commensurate with the dangers and sacrifice that they're families make, they'll be a shortfall of police throughout the commonwealth," Machado said.