4 July 16 - August 5, 2011 by Miriam Van Scott
The Chandler Police Department will begin replacing its antiquated communications system next month with Versadex, a $3 million state-of-the-art matrix that will revolutionize the way officers conduct standard procedures. By streamlining information requests and integrating various databases, the high tech system will be faster and more accurate than the current piecemeal process and provide an increased level of safety to Chandler offi cers and the community at large. “This new system is going to allow us to do a lot more, a lot faster and much more effi ciently than the way we do it now,” says Chandler Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Favazzo. “What we’re using now is
Community Police communications go high tech Submitted photo
UPGRADE: The squad car computers Chandler Police Department officers work on will be replaced next month with faster, more sophisticated equipment.
archaic by today’s standards, and I can’t overstate how much of an improvement there will be when it’s up and running.”
Under the system currently in use, an offi cer responding to a routine call has to access multiple databases just to get basic information on suspects. This can be time-consuming and cumbersome, especially when dealing with volatile situations. “Let’s say I’m an offi cer responding to a call about a fi ght,” explains Favazzo. “The way it works now, I arrive
on the scene and separate the parties and get their names and dates of birth, then I have to get a hold of someone in the records department to fi nd out if there’s any background info on them. After that, I have to contact dispatch to run an outstanding warrant check. If the person lives in Phoenix it might mean an extra call to ask around, since Phoenix PD responds to so many calls they can’t enter in every minor warrant because it would swamp the system. It could easily take three calls to three different people just for this one incident, and if there are problems with the system or I have to wait for answers, it can be very frustrating, and dangerous.”
Cutting downtime
The current redundancies and ineffi ciencies don’t end when the situation is resolved and police offi cers leave the scene. After responding to an incident, offi cers have to write up a report citing what happened and who was involved, and that means using multiple databases that do not have interface capability. “To do an incident report now, the offi cer uses the Computer Aided Dispatch system, which requires logging in with a user name and individual password. Then he might also need to go to another information
system to get the details on the person’s prior records, and that needs a different user name and password. If he has to look at the Records Management System, that’s yet another user name and password on still another separate system. And keep in mind none of these systems can talk to each other. It’s not uncommon for offi cers to carry around a notebook with all these names and passwords just to keep it all straight.”
Because of this compartmentalized process, one call can collectively involve as many as 10 or 12 people checking archived records, responding with data and updating fi les to include the latest information. But Versadex can accomplish these tasks in a fraction of the time and with minimal impact on police personnel by cross-referencing databases in mere seconds, freeing up offi cers and support staff to perform other functions.
“It cuts down on the time spent on paperwork, putting offi cers back on the road and back into the community,” notes Favazzo.
Improving safety
Versadex has other features that safeguard police staff and the public, such as a tracking system that gives real-time updates on the location of all on-duty police operatives. The new database also automatically dispatches backup units if an offi cer is interacting with someone currently wanted in connection with another crime.
“When I started 22 years ago, all we had was radios,” Favazzo recalls. “And we had to start the car and let the radio warm up before we could even transmit.
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