I
t’s a real jungle out there in the world of software technology and every aspect must be considered to choose the best software to keep offi cers and the public safe, while improving effi ciency and using the most cost-effective programs. The Village of Skokie in northern Illinois built a new, green certifi ed, state-of-the- art facility, utilizing high-tech software for such things as their RMS, CAD, evidence and other needs. Chief Anthony Scarpelli reported that after building their new de- partment, they began a year-long process of looking at public safety software. Their pre- vious software was antiquated and while they kept getting upgrades, they were still operating on ‘green and black’ screens. It was diffi cult to get documents such as management reports, which were hard to customize and might have to be done with other software products. They were in the market for a complete update of all of their public safety software, which they purchased in 2011 and implemented in April 2013. Skokie Police Commander David Paw- lak reported that the fi rst mistake they made was in just doing a one-to-one re- placement for the software they had been using. He said, “You need to look beyond what you need now and look at future needs, looking at each solution and what it could do for you.” He suggested replac- ing the time-consuming manual tasks that people don’t think about every day with software solutions that could take care of present and future needs.
Scarpelli said you need to examine all of your agency’s operations. You should be looking at modules such as crime analysis, internal affairs, a program that creates a daily bulletin, and concentrate on freeing current staff time while anticipating future needs. The modular system is very useful here, because not only can systems be added as needed, but more importantly, all the modules interface with each other. There are programs on the market for just about anything you can do, but most do not share information. The lack of sharing creates analysis problems and often increases data entry time.
Scarpelli reported they talked with their
software developers on conference calls weekly because his staff might come up with something they believed they needed (such as modifi cations to the software) and would ask the company to include it in the software. This also helped with the internal changes they needed to make at their own department, including things like the data tables needed and the Pick Lists, the type of dropdown bars they wanted for vari- ous solutions/listings, such as offenses, ordinances, personnel, things that were personalized (user defi ned) for their own department. He said you have to be open to new ideas with the software, or be will- ing to pay for modifi cations in the future to make it work the way you want it to work.
Cost Is Always an Issue Law enforcement budgets are tight and the cost of anything new must be carefully considered. Price, technical support, and the ability of the software manufacturer to offer fl exibility in the design of the software to make it more responsive to the needs of a particular department can be important to a department with a limited budget that wants to get things right the fi rst time. Software that can be used with existing equipment can save money on buying new hardware. Chief Scarpelli stated that it is neces- sary to have dedicated staff to focus on the project and Skokie Police Department Public Safety IT Specialist Tomasz Tara- siuk agreed. You need to put good data in and get the junk data out of the system before it is transferred to the new system in the RMS records, CAD, and dispatch and it all takes time. You need to have the people available to get clean data into the system. Scarpelli suggested looking at all the data that needs converted and look at what can be left in the old system. You could spend a fortune in data conversion for data you don’t use and add a lot of unnecessary costs. You can keep data available in the old system and not convert it if it is seldom or never used data.
Chief Scarpelli suggested fi rst doing a needs assessment where you determine where you currently are and where you want to be in the future. He also stated that cost is always going to be a factor and look- ing for grants to offset some of the expense makes it easier to realize getting to where you want to be from where you are. They re- ceived a COPS Technology Grant from DOJ for around $465,000 of the $700,000 cost.
Free Software
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has funded a number of free or low-cost soft- ware tools, apps and databases to assist with investigations or research. Software for communications, digital forensics, fo- rensic DNA, forensic information man- agement, and forensic anthropology/ medicolegal death investigation, as well as other law enforcement, fi re, and arson investigations is available. LexisNexis® offers eCrash as a free service to law en- forcement agencies with an online acci- dent/crash report management solution to help agencies automate their accident reporting process, including fulfi lling labor-intensive requests for accident/ crash reports.
Free or open source software is also available through private sources, but these must be used with the principle of caveat emptor in mind, even with no cost. Free software is offered for several reasons, sometimes with good intentions and sometimes from malefactors who offer software that includes viruses or software. Some is offered on a trial basis with the maker hoping clients buy an en- hanced version.
Chief Scarpelli reported that they previously did take advantage of some of the free software available, but the problem is the software does not always easily interface with your own in-house system and you have to pay for a soft- ware patch, which might cost thousands of dollars.
Cloud Computing or In-House Servers
Departments using in-house servers may need newer, more powerful computers to store data and may lose data if the server crashes, which requires expensive redundancy in backup. Cloud comput- ing, on the other hand, can probably be
www.lawandordermag.com 25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68