By LINDSEY NAIR, The Associated Press
ROANOKE, Va. -- Was that perpetrator named Rick or Dick? Did he have a lover’s quarrel or kill his brother’s squirrel?
These penmanship mix-ups might have happened when Roanoke police officers turned in handwritten incident reports, but now that the department has a computer program called Police-Pak in its cruisers and offices, the details are much clearer, and crime-solving happens faster.
“It’s phenomenal,” said Sgt. Chris Perkins, assigned to major crimes. “I think that’s the best thing we’ve ever done as far as case management and tracking reports.”
An incident report consists of three pages tightly crammed with blanks and boxes. The fourth page is reserved for the officer’s narrative, and that’s where many indecipherable words can appear, causing headaches for everyone from supervisors to public relations officers.
“You can actually read this one,” said Lt. Rick Arrington, assigned to the records division, as he pointed out one narrative. “Some of them you can’t even read.”
The department already had installed laptops in all of its cruisers. It put Police-Pak in the laptops and in some computers inside the station. Officers are now typing their reports on a computerized form in their cruisers.
Police-Pak is manufactured by Southern Software. Roanoke is the largest police department in the company’s territory to use the program, Arrington said.
The department is hoping for a grant that will let it add more features to the software. With upgrades, officers could transmit their reports wirelessly into the building, their in-car databases being simultaneously updated with new information.
“It’s supposed to be geared up so you pull up in the back of the building, hit ‘transmit,’ and it goes right in,” Sgt. Bob Chandler said.
In addition, the grant would purchase Jail-Pak, a similar program for the Roanoke City Jail. It will allow for seamless data transfers between the two organizations.
Someday, the Police Department hopes to expand its use of Police-Pak by attaching digital crime-scene photos to reports and linking mug shots to warrants for easier identification. If the department wanted to install printers in cruisers, officers even could print citations in the field.
Until then, the Police Department already is enjoying many perks.
“Already, things are so much faster,” automation coordinator Tiffany Moran said.
When officers end their shift, they save their reports onto a disk in their car, then bring it into the records division to be downloaded. The records division prints hard copies for supervisors to review, but Perkins said he saves time by getting right onto the computer to review them.
In major crimes, when every minute counts toward solving a homicide or robbery, the new system is particularly helpful.
“It’s almost immediate reporting, is what it boils down to,” Perkins said, “and we can start a case as fast as the officer can type.”
Another benefit is automatic validation. Before Police-Pak, sergeants had to pore over reports to validate certain information. They were achieving about 95 percent validation, Arrington said, but it took more time.
Now, the program immediately alerts officers if they enter incorrect information or miss a blank. Arrington said they already are achieving 98 percent or 99 percent accuracy.
“If you don’t put it in the format it wants, it’ll come up and say ‘Hey, that’s not what I’m looking for,’ ” Chandler said.
Moran said she worried that the veteran officers would turn up their noses at typing reports, but so far they are learning, and the new recruits are in their technological element.
These days, Chandler said, “Everyone is being brought up with computers.”