Computer System DPD Passed On Working Great For Sheriff's Deputies
NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - It's the tale of two law enforcement agencies - The City of Dallas versus Dallas County.
At issue is a records management system (RMS) used inside patrol cars that give law enforcement agencies access to critical information or help them book criminals.
"This is pretty much my office for a ten hour shift," Jerry Poole, Dallas County Sheriff's deputy, told us.
When you think about the must-have tools a police officer uses every day, you might think gun, taser, and bullet-proof vest. But now-a-days patrol car laptops are high on that list for law enforcement agents like Deputy Jerry Poole.
Poole has been with the Dallas County Sheriff's Department for 21 years. And he's seen all sorts of changes come through the department. But one of the most significant, he says, was when they stopped writing their reports and started typing them with laptops installed in their patrol cars.
"Once we get somebody we're going to take to jail, we can actually do the booking sheet on the computer," Poole explained. "All this information transfers from one report to the other. It's not like we have to do the same report over and over again. It could save a good 30, 30 to 45 minutes."
For more than six years Dallas County has been using a company called Indico to manage its records. The system helps deputies keep track the reports they've worked on, remind them of reports still pending, it gives them access to information about crimes or criminals and even helps them book a someone in jail.
"The less time we have to spend in the jail, obviously the more time we have to spend protecting the citizens of Dallas County," Steve Womack, Dallas County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant, said.
The City of Dallas could have bought the same system, Indico, for $5.6 million, but instead chose to go with Unisys and Denali-Intergraph at a cost of $7.4 million. That decision means Dallas Police reports don't automatically go to the jail, forcing officers to spend more time writing and printing reports rather than being in the field.
"Obviously it stands to reason that it would probably much more seamless to get them to be in the automated arena with us had they had gone with Indico," Lt. Womack noted.
At Dallas' latest Public Safety meeting not one or two, but three council members brought up concerns with Dallas Police Department's patrol car computer system. It's a system the CBS 11 I-Team has been investigating for months.
Police Chief David Brown blames the computer problems on users unable to figure out the system.
"I always tell veterans, hey baby boomer, you need to get in the car with the gen x and gen y because they'll do your reports pretty quickly without the errors," Chief David Brown said during yesterday's Public Safety meeting. Brown says the issues have been minimal.
"We had a bad first two weeks," Brown added.
But new documents the I-Team got a hold of from City of Dallas' Technology Department show problems with part of the Records Management System (RMS) date back to 2012, even before the system went live. Some of the problems were never fixed and some of the fixes failed.
♦♦♦ Read The Entire Dallas Record Management System (RMS) Configuration Request Defects Report ♦♦♦
Police officers that actually use this system in the field aren't allowed to talk to us. But one of their union presidents says the city needs to take another look at why this system was chosen.
"When we paid that much money for a system, we should be able to push a button, send it and be done with it. That's not what we're doing," Richard Todd, Fraternal Order of Police President, said.
Dallas PD assures us they have some fixes that will take effect later this week and their entire system will be on-line in early October.
But we did want to point out, this system was chosen and is being run the City of Dallas' Technology Department (CIS). CBS 11 I-Team Investigative Reporter Mireya Villarreal has tried several times to talk with someone in that department, but no one has stepped up; leaving the police department to answer these questions.
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