Sioux Falls Police Department, Sioux Falls Fire Rescue and Minnehaha County Sheriffs Office were being held back by the limited technology and technical support provided by their legacy public safety solution. Their goals were to improve response to the community, increase the amount of time officers are in the field, improve access to information and ensure interoperability.
To take advantage of advances in technology, from GIS to mobile computing, they had to replace their existing public safety solution. They embarked on a rigorous 18-month software selection process that included issuing an RFP and reviewing 11 vendors. At the end of that process, they chose New World Systems Windows-based Aegis Public Safety solution.
New World Solution
New World Systems Aegis/MSP CAD, Law Enforcement Records, Fire Records, Mobile Computing, and Corrections Management solution provides the City and County with up-to-date public safety functionality for 3 law enforcement agencies, 15 fire departments and 5 ambulance and EMS services. This functionality decreases response time and improves community safety.
Community Benefits
Protects the community by delivering the right resources with the right information to the scene through unit recommendations, powerful search capabilities and interagency interoperability
Directs the first responder to the right location faster, with integrated geo-verification of addresses and advanced mapping capabilities
Provides faster response, improved decision-making ability and enhanced team cooperation in protecting the community through in-car mobile communications
Keeps officers in the field to protect the community with Mobile Field-Based Reporting; officers do not have to return to the office to write reports
Rising to the Challenge
The agencies are seeing the benefits of New World's solution and the seamless integration between the applications. Sioux Falls, Minnehaha County and New World worked as a team to go live on CAD, Law Enforcement Records, Fire Records, Corrections and Mobile simultaneously.
The project was a success and the County and City have seen the solution pay dividends quickly.
A wireless Phase II call provided the latitude and longitude on a family dispute call, enabling officers to get to the scene of the incident.
A Sioux Falls city council member called Assistant Police Chief, Patti Lyon for an explanation on an incident in their neighborhood. She immediately accessed the call and arrest report. In the past, it would have taken me days to put the pieces together, said Lyon.
A detective searching for a cell phone number for an informant ran a quick search of the database and found it embedded in a past field report.
The fire department chief officer staff can now see in real-time what units are in service and dispatched, where coverage is weak and drill into call detail to immediately react to changing situations.
With New Worlds solution, the agencies have seen dramatic increases in communication between departments. Using the Mobile Computing system, officers get continuous updates on the call prior to arriving at the scene. In addition, the dispatcher or the officer can easily access Records to learn the history for an address, person or vehicle. The officer knows if there was a previous domestic incident at the address, if the vehicle is stolen, and/or the history of the person. There are many more resources available to officers, firefighters and EMS personnel, such as fire pre-plans, prior incidents at an address, gun permits, health history and much more, allowing for a better response.
Customer Service
Our biggest challenge was implementing all the applications at once to maintain integration, said Renita Walters, Project Manager. New World's customer service was critical in accomplishing this task. Excellent service feedback was a common thread across both City and County employees.
Additional Benefits
The Police Department, Fire Rescue and Sheriffs Office have seen many benefits across the entire application suite that help increase productivity, and first responder and community safety.
Dispatchers can customize their application interface, quickly create calls for service, and work cooperatively within the application improving productivity and response time.
Field reports are immediately accessible to records and detectives, providing quick access to crime information to help find suspects faster.
Mapping capabilities decrease response times, allowing dispatchers to easily locate the closest unit to a call for service.
Unit recommendations help dispatchers ensure the appropriate unit and equipment arrives at the scene.
Records Management reduces redundant data entry in arrest reports, case reports and tickets, as information can be accessed and imported.
Testimonials
A significant amount of time and effort was put into this project by our staff, but the end reward was well worth it. I am just amazed at the amount of information that we are able to pull from this system. Through the use of this system, we are able to be more efficient and effective in the performance of our duties. Police Chief, Doug Barthel Sioux Falls Police
This system combined our fire records into one database which is a great improvement over maintaining several databases. The switch to the MSP platform required a significant effort from our staff, but the results provided for higher quality records, expanded data collection, and information being available on demand. This system improves the ability to deliver our services. Rick Larsen, Fire Chief Sioux Falls Fire Rescue
