With public scrutiny of law enforcement agencies at a heightened level, documentation is gaining importance. At the same time, there are massive new software capabilities for organizing information, as well as helping users mine that information for patterns or trends.
Keeping track of incidents, policies, training, and other core aspects of daily police work is easier and more productive, experts say, with customizable and user-friendly records management systems (RMS). These systems also help optimize accountability and transparency while addressing liability concerns.
“With officer-involved shootings, significant use of force, and the potential for liability, having those records available to you and knowing they’re accurate and complete is an assurance that [agencies] are meeting the standards they need to meet,” said David Carlson, owner of Sierra Pacific Software, a Tigard, Oregon, firm that developed Training Officer 2000, a training and personnel tracking and storage solution. “If it isn’t documented, it didn’t occur. If someone goes to training, but the hard copy of their certificate gets misplaced, what do you do?”1
As Kevin Knox, chief management officer and co-founder of Orlando, Florida, software company PowerDMS, points out, many police departments devise their own systems to manage their records, but, in the event those records would be needed in a court of law, those systems might not be legitimate in the eyes of a judge.
PowerDMS offers software-as-a-service solutions for managing policies, training, and accreditation records. Each application allows users to draft, revise, disseminate, and report on policies from the web.
“The most common way to do this is pen and paper or a homegrown solution like SharePoint or Excel or even email,” Knox said. “All those ways have issues. For accountability and transparency, this is better.”2
Such a situation was illustrated in a 2016 trial in Baltimore, Maryland, in which police were charged in the death of city resident Freddie Gray. As part of the case, a judge ruled that email “read receipts”—messages indicating that an email was opened by its recipient—were not sufficient to prove that a specific policy had been communicated to officers.3
Officially recognized by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), the PowerDMS solutions can also be used to share other kinds of information. Recently, PowerDMS users in the Secaucus Police Department in New Jersey used PowerDMS to share a video file among officers, which subsequently helped lead to an arrest.4
“It starts with policy management,” Knox said, “but can be operationalized and spread throughout the workforce.”5
PowerDMS is not the only records management system that is designed to be more than just an RMS. GeoSafe, based in Norman, Oklahoma, helps public safety officials work together more effectively across agencies and jurisdictions.
GeoSafe Mobile works in the background to connect with computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems and capture data from incoming calls. The application then goes further by disseminating that call data to a preselected group of responders, then linking the data to a GPS-enabled mapping and tracking system.
“The mobile integrates with CAD to bring that information out to the patrol on foot,” said GeoSafe Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Moshe Gutman. “What makes us different is the seamless sharing between agencies. Your agencies and neighboring agencies can work together more effectively.”6
First responders in Norman, Oklahoma—which houses the University of Oklahoma (OU), as well as GeoSafe headquarters—integrate incident responses across the city of Norman and the sprawling OU campus with GeoSafe Mobile. The solution works with essentially any CAD vendor and reduces response time by disseminating CAD data to responders more quickly, using a mapping system that can be overlaid with street cameras, storm shelters, and even fire hydrants.
“It can be countywide, so agencies can pool their resources together,” said Alex Lobodiak, GeoSafe’s head of business development. “It’s a force multiplier because it’s more efficient. You use this across departments to see where others are, and it increases situational awareness that you’d expect to have from a larger city.”7
Gutman said the solution also can increase safety for those using it. “EMS can track closer to the call because they can see the dispatcher’s notes on their device, using the GPS feature to help navigate a police officer through a high-speed pursuit.”8
Experts stressed that record keeping becomes more effective only as it becomes more thorough. Areas like K9 training and incident documentation are important types of records that can sometimes be overlooked.
Robert Eden is working to change that. As CEO of Eden K9 Consulting & Training Corporation, based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has overseen the creation of the K9 Activity Tracking System (KATS), a comprehensive RMS geared specifically toward K9 units.
“The system centers around K9-specific record keeping, helping to reduce liability through proper documentation,” Eden said. “You can pull the report at the touch of a fingertip and show the circumstances around a given incident. If you ever get queried in court, you have the records to back it up. A lot of agencies are doing it by paper still. It works for all levels of units, and you can customize the system to maintain what you want it to maintain.”9
Developed by K9 officers, prosecuting attorneys, and software engineers, KATS was the first software developed for law enforcement K9 operations. Usable from virtually any platform, users can view stats for individual officers or for an entire team of dogs.
Managing records around officer training is another area that frequently relies on fragmented or ad hoc systems. Training Officer 2000 is an affordable and user-friendly solution that can transform documentation practices for the better.
“It is a training and personnel records management system. This is standalone software that agencies use to take control of their key records,” Carlson said. “Most [law enforcement agencies] use sticky notes or a glorified spreadsheet. This helps them with their accountability and their accreditation standards, and it can remind supervisors when certification is about to expire.”10
With a one-time price point of $2,495 and premium tech support priced at $279 per year, Training Officer 2000 is competitively priced compared with competitors, and users have full flexibility over the product once it’s purchased. “There are no licensing fees, so it’s yours forever and you can install it on as many workstations as you want,” Carlson said.11
The results from better documentation are tangible. Ninety-five percent of those who use Faro Zone 3D, a solution that captures and organizes data from traffic incidents for reconstruction and investigation, reported that the quality of their presentations and courtroom deliverables improved as a result of the software. Officials with the software’s creator, Lake Mary, Florida-based FARO, report that the solution leads to improved quality of courtroom deliverables. “The diagram captures the scene and gets incorporated when the report is sent off to the state,” said Janice White, FARO’s director of public safety product management.12
Another provider, Envisage Technologies, provides Acadis Readiness, a software suite that aims to simplify and streamline a variety of record keeping and reporting processes, all under one electronic roof.
“Our products foster training automation and the digitization of records resulting in a reduction of overhead typically associated with traditional paper-based processes,” said Ari Vidali, CEO of the Bloomington, Indiana, firm. “Additionally, the consolidation of data into the Acadis database is a proven cost reducer through its replacement of multiple systems, thereby mitigating the long-term maintenance costs of the various systems and software our products replace.”13
An additional industry leader in records management is CrimeCenter Software, the Newark, New Jersey, company that provides a host of solutions to help law enforcement organize and manage many aspects of their day-to-day work. By helping officers not only to gather and organize data, but also to access and harness it more easily, the company helps agencies get their jobs done.
“Our major difference is we focus more on case management than incident management,” said CrimeCenter Manager Mike Cunningham. “A lot of RMS have very functional front ends, but then they drop off. A case folder can take files from other systems and add it all together. It allows them to get insight into crimes that are occurring. A lot of times, you keep information about a case in a spiral notebook, but our system is documentation-centric. You build a case piece by piece based on what’s been happening.”14
With the wide range of RMS systems available on the market, law enforcement agencies that take the time to carefully examine their current and future records management needs will be able to find the system that is a perfect fit for their agencies and records. ♦
Notes:
1David Carlson (owner, Sierra Pacific Software), telephone interview, January 11, 2018.
2Kevin Knox (CMO and co-founder, PowerDMS), telephone interview, January 10, 2018.
3Joe Heim and Rachel Weiner, “Baltimore Officer Acquitted On All Counts in Freddie Gray Case,” Washington Post, May 23, 2016.
4Knox, telephone interview, January 10, 2018.
5Knox, telephone interview, January 10, 2018.
6Moshe Gutman (CEO, GeoSafe), telephone interview, January 10, 2018.
7Alex Lobodiak (business development, GeoSafe), telephone interview, January 10, 2018.
8Gutman, telephone interview, January 10, 2018.
9Robert Eden (CEO, K9 Consulting & Training Corporation), telephone interview, January 8, 2018.
10Carlson, telephone interview, January 11, 2018.
11Carlson, telephone interview, January 11, 2018.
12Janice White (director of public safety product management, FARO), telephone interview, January 8, 2018.
13Ari Vidali (CEO, Envisage Technologies), email, January 15, 2018.
14Mike Cunningham (manager, CrimeCenter Software), telephone interview, January 11, 2018.
Please cite as
Scott Harris, “Records Management Solutions to Improve Transparency and Reduce Liability,” Product Feature, The Police Chief (March 2018): 52–54.
