Agency cites cost-effectiveness and data sharing capabilities among reasons for staying with Spillman.
LOGAN, Utah – Cache County Sheriff’s Office celebrated 30 years with its public safety software provider, Spillman Technologies, in July 2015. The agency signed with Spillman on Jul. 7, 1985, becoming the company’s first public safety customer. Remaining with the same software vendor for so long has enabled the sheriff’s office to save taxpayer money and serve its public more efficiently by sharing data across jurisdictional lines.
Cache County Chief Deputy Matt Bilodeau said using Spillman’s software system has helped the agency use taxpayer dollars responsibly.
“With everything we purchase, we remember that it is taxpayers’ money that we are spending,” Bilodeau said. “We have found the Spillman system to be the most cost-effective law enforcement software available to help us serve the public.”
Bilodeau explained that the agency’s software system has grown and evolved over the course of the partnership, and that the long relationship with Spillman has enabled the sheriff’s office personnel to become very adept at both using the software and training others to use it. He added that if Cache County were to switch to a different software vendor, the time and costs required to train and get the agency to the level of proficiency and confidence they have with Spillman would be unimaginable.
Cache County Sheriff’s Office is now on a shared system hosted by Logan Police Department, which also includes Smithfield Police Department, North Park Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and Preston Police Department. Operating on a shared software system allows each of the six agencies to share information, saving time and resources and allowing personnel to work together across jurisdictional lines. The agency also utilizes Spillman’s InSight module, which allows participating Spillman agencies around the state to share information by running queries into one another’s databases.
“Sharing information helps all law enforcement,” Bilodeau said. “In the past, if someone committed a crime in another jurisdiction [that agency] would be the only agency with that information. Now we have the ability to look at and share information with most of the agencies in the state. That gives us access to more information and the ability to investigate crimes more efficiently, resulting in fewer crimes and quicker apprehension.”
Spillman Technologies has also done a great deal of growing since Cache County signed on 30 years ago. The company originated in Logan when founder Richard Spillman, then a student at Utah State University, began developing software for local government offices. The company switched gears and began to focus exclusively on public safety technology after creating the software package for Cache County Sheriff’s Office.
“I have watched them really blossom as an agency,” Richard Spillman said. “They really embraced technology early and well, and they saw it as a good tool and they have implemented some really good things.”
Addressing the company’s close relationship with the sheriff’s office, Spillman added, “It’s been fun that we’ve both kind of grown up together, in a sense. Like best friends.”
About Spillman Technologies
Spillman Technologies is now headquartered in Salt Lake City and serves more than 1,500 sheriff’s offices, police departments, communication centers, correctional facilities, and fire departments nationwide. Spillman specializes in integrated on-premises and cloud-based software solutions, including Computer-Aided Dispatch, Records Management Systems, Mobile Data & Field Reporting,Mapping & GIS, Jail Management Systems, Fire, Data Sharing, Personnel & Resources, and Analytics & Intelligence-Led Policing. For more information about Spillman, visit www.spillman.com.