A federal grant and new mobile software allow immediate information sharing for rural law enforcement agencies.
Troy, Michigan — For the very first time, rural law enforcement agencies in five counties of northeast South Dakota are able to share critical information from their vehicles. Under an initiative called the Northeast South Dakota Rural Information Exchange Model (RIEM), a coalition of fifteen law enforcement agencies in South Dakota have implemented New World Systems’ Aegis ® Mobile Computing Public Safety Software Solution on the Microsoft® platform. Funded through a competitive Federal Recovery Act grant, RIEM and New World are providing a scalable, multi-jurisdictional crime fighting tool, with mapping capabilities, automated field reporting and more, to rural agencies that would not normally be able to afford such a solution.
“Our region of the state is located on a major interstate that provides law enforcement agencies with an excellent opportunity to have an impact on the transportation of illegal drugs across the country,” said Watertown Police Chief Joanna Vitek. “In order to fight this drug trafficking and related crimes, we needed to better share and exchange information with our partners in the northeast region of the state.”
The $1.5 million grant that made this project possible was awarded to the Watertown Police Department in 2009 to combat an increase in gang and drug-related crime in northeast South Dakota. A New World customer since 2006, the Watertown Police Department used the funds to purchase equipment, hire an information systems technician and 911 dispatchers and facilitate the flow of information to other agencies beyond radio capabilities, using their integrated New World solutions as an information and communication hub.
“Criminals constantly pass between our cities’ limits and do not abide by the jurisdictional boundaries we set for ourselves,” said Chief Vitek. “We share a lot of the same bad guys with our neighboring agencies, so it only makes sense for all fifteen agencies to have access to the same information. The ability to share good information in a timely fashion is the lifeblood of a successful law enforcement agency. It improves communication and makes everyone more efficient by eliminating duplicated efforts.”
“New World is leading the industry in the development and deployment of advanced and fully integrated data sharing solutions,” said Mark Prevost, Vice President of Marketing for New World. “Using New World’s Mobile Computing software, officers from Northeast South Dakota are now able to look up information on addresses, vehicles, weapons and persons directly from the field.”
Many of the agencies are also gaining the ability to access and query the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) through New World’s Mobile Computing software for the first time. This immediate access to much more information from their patrol vehicles alerts officers to potential safety risks and helps them be better prepared before arriving at the scene of an incident.
“This project is all about increasing citizen and officer safety, effectiveness and efficiency,” added Prevost.
“Using New World’s software, we are now able to chat back and forth between agencies, see who is actively out in the community at any given time and locate all officers using Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL),” said Chief Vitek. “We are able to communicate beyond voice over radio and let officers know they are not alone out there in these rural locations. These capabilities are key to improving officer safety and working together to catch bad guys.”
The RIEM project is taking place in two parts. The first half, which is nearly complete for all agencies, allows officers in the field to access critical law enforcement information from their vehicles. The second half of the project will then provide officers with the capability to submit information via field-based reports.
“The support that we have received from New World during this project has been tremendous,” said Chief Vitek. “We are looking forward to continuing down this very successful road and hope to see other communities implement similar information sharing initiatives across the country.”