Holyoke police move records to the cloud
The use of technology in law enforcement is not just a recent innovation. But the scope and power of its uses have made leaps and bounds since the police radio was introduced in 1933 and radar detectors began catching speeding cars and drivers in the decade that followed.
Today, police departments use surveillance cameras, gunshot detection systems, automated license plate readers, facial recognition software, body cameras, drones and in-car laptop computers to prevent, respond to and investigate crimes. Law enforcement agencies now use cloud computing to help store and manage large amounts of data, such as fingerprints, photographs, video footage and police reports. New technology enables law enforcement professionals to effectively collect data and perform useful crime analysis.
The Holyoke, Mass., police department is taking a new step in the use of technology with a record-keeping system that is predicted to save time and allow officers to do their jobs more effectively.
Exchanging its 30-year-old record-keeping system for a cloud-based one means the days of searching for records in heavy paper binders and digging in revolving file cabinets will be over. The new system will give officers, records personnel and telecommunications staff state-of-the-art tools for serving not only their own community, but the surrounding area, according to Officer Walber Borrego.
While the Holyoke Police Department has been computerized for several years, the original system needed updating. The new system is cloud-based with servers that are located off-site, so if there is a failure in Holyoke, data will still be saved, he said.
The new technology will pinpoint call and response locations and give summaries of trends with a National Incident-Based Reporting System. Officers in the field will be able to instantly pull up visuals, graphs and reports from their computers as opposed to sorting through paper records. Information that has been buried in incident reports will be quickly available using color-codes and easy-to-digest formats. All of this will be available to officers without having to return to the station to get the information.
The technology will also help the department provide timely information to the media, the Holyoke City Council and public safety committee. In addition, the Holyoke Police Department will be able to share information in real time with other law enforcement agencies, such as the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office and the West Springfield Police Department, which are also implementing the cloud-based technology.
“We’re in the process now of migrating records to the new system,” he said. That migration takes time and patience with the volume of data and handwritten documents that have to be placed into the new system. And it’s just not about inputting the information, but making certain “it lands in the correct spot in the system,” Borrego added.
The new system will use computer-aided emergency dispatch software that gives police the ability to run data analytics in real time, a far cry from the single telephone with a three-digit number that was introduced to the Holyoke police station 100 years ago. That and the 65 call boxes around the city were what kept beat officers in contact with the station.
Not only have Borrego and his partner, Officer Stephen Norton, been working on the migration of data for several months, but there has also been training to make sure that when the Mark 43 system goes live later this fall, the 110-member force will be ready to use it.
He said the system’s developers have provided on-site training, and they’ve created training modules for dispatchers, officers and office staff to practice using the system.
“It’s a lot to learn, especially when you’ve been using the same system for 20 years,” Borrego said. “Some of the officers have been here 30 years and have gone from pen and paper to typewriters and then computers.”
The new system is a major financial commitment for the city of 38,000 that lies north of Springfield between the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. “We’re very careful how we spend our money,” Borrego added.
Borrego said the department has been using technology for a number of years, including in-cruiser mobile computers and camera systems that Holyoke is in the process of upgrading. The department also uses shot spotter sensors that send a call when sounds that could be gunfire go off.
He said that there are times when shots are fired, and no one calls to make a report. The sensors help law enforcement by identifying where the possible gunshots were fired. “We can then respond more quickly and investigate to determine if there really was gunfire.” But the $130,000 a year investment in keeping the new record system, he believes, is important to both the city and the region. “This system will link us to other departments and agencies that we work with.”
The skyline of Holyoke, Mass., is seen from Chicopee. The city has made a major investment in a cloud-based records system for its police department. (Simtropolitan via Wikimedia Commons; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en) The Holyoke Police Department’s new cloud-based records system will enable officers to access data and file reports directly from mobile computers in their vehicles. This system broadens the scope of information they can transmit and receive, surpassing the capabilities of the former local system. (Photos provided by Holyoke, Mass., Police Department)
