We Have Software for That, Too

Taking 911 calls, citing speeders, performing investigations, and incarcerating lawbreakers are all tasks performed by public safety personnel with the help of their records management systems (RMS).
 

But police departments and sheriff’s offices are often called on to do much more than this. And, many times, those additional things don’t fit neatly into the functionality of an off-the-shelf public safety software package.
 

It wasn’t that long ago that many of the processes in law enforcement agencies and county jails were paper-based. As more and more agencies automated their core tasks (such as incidents, arrests, citations and accident crash reports) with these new software systems, many previously paper-based processes went away. Despite this, a substantial number of processes are still paper-based, or at least not yet integrated with core systems. With all of the enhancements in technology over the past several years it makes sense that these additional agency-specific tasks should be automated, as well.
 

For example, some jurisdictions require that a person purchase a permit before he or she is allowed to sell scrap copper. This is not the sort of thing which fits nicely into the standard functionality available from an RMS. In other jurisdictions, the local police department may be responsible for issuing and tracking boat licenses or taxi permits. To manage these types of records, which are above and beyond the capabilities of most records management systems, agencies will often set up an Excel spreadsheet or an MS Access database to enter and track these items. Unfortunately, these spreadsheets and databases are not integrated with searching, tracking and reporting capabilities of each agency’s RMS.
 

With the ledsSuite solution, from Zuercher Technologies, integrated functionality to support these unique agency data tracking requirements is available with a product called “custom modules.” Items and processes such as issuing and tracking copper permits, boat licenses, or other special data collection requirements can now be met-- all within the ledsSuite software solution.
 

A big benefit of this is that by adding all of the agency’s data collection processes into ledsSuite, the agency is able to use the built-in searching and reporting tools that make ledsSuite so powerful. In addition, people, addresses and vehicles which pertain to these custom modules can be stored in and validated against the master indexes. Finally, agency staff members need just one set of credentials to access and work with all of the data in ledsSuite, whether calls for service, cases, boat licenses or jail bookings.
 

So, what’s the only thing better than having most of your public safety records available in one system? Having all of them there.