Seattle Digitizes Crime Records
Seattle Police Department officials are set to move this summer to an automated electronic system that will oversee their crime records system. The department selected a records management system from ABM America that assistant police chief Jim Pugel explained will provide officers with access to more data than they presently have. It will “improve the reduction rate of criminal investigations, increase convictions, and assist in the reduction of crime,” Pugel noted.
ABM is offering four products that will one day constitute an incorporated system. Its Web-based Records Management System is an applications suite that automates such activities as process control, which ascertains that all users follow mandatory processes and procedures, and permits managers to oversee the workload and performance of individual officers or whole departments.
In addition, ABM is providing PIMS, for handling contacts with confidential informants; Prophecy, for identifying present and future incident patterns; and Prochart, which provides automated charting capabilities.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from Federal Computer Week (06/04/04); Robinson, Brian .