Missing persons, trespass, towing and other logs will now be digitized as the Holyoke Police Department overhauls how it manages data. Officer Stephen Norton Technical Services Holyoke Police Department.
HOLYOKE — Holyoke police will soon scrap a 30-year-old record-keeping system — and hit the cloud. Faster reporting and analysis of crime data will enable police to make better decisions, officials say.
David Pratt, chief of the Holyoke Police Department, said the new Mark43 system will provide officers, detectives, records personnel and telecommunications staff with state-of-the-art tools, after decades stuck in an information age slow lane.
As a result, police will be able to better fight crime and serve the community, he said. “This partnership enables closer collaboration with neighboring agencies and cross-county partners so we can work together in our shared mission of public safety,” Pratt said.
Right now, the department keeps track of reports and records in giant logbooks and with an old floppy disk system that is about three decades old, said Holyoke Officer Walber Borrego.
Officers can only access information by coming back to the station, Borrego said in an interview. By the fall of 2025, the new system will be in place, after years of data is transferred from the old system to the new cloud platform.
“We are basically going to be building the system from the ground up,” Borrego said.
The new system will include computer-aided emergency dispatch software and enable police to run data analytics in real time. The system will be able to pinpoint call and response locations and provide summaries of trends with a National Incident-Based Reporting System.
The initial start-up cost was included in the department’s capital budget and the annual subscription will run the department about $130,000 a year, depending on what software programs are used, Borrego said.
How it works
The system will be tailored to Holyoke’s needs. An officer will be able to look up break-ins, for example, while a supervisor uses it to track things that need to be approved. The system will be updated as laws or policies change, Borrego said.
With the upgrades, Holyoke PD users will be able to access data quicker, improving officer safety, awareness and their ability to serve the community, police say.
Until now, compiling basic statistics has been done manually. The new system, Borrego said, will allow police to instantly pull up visuals, graphs and reports instead of having to sort through paper records. The system will help the department be more transparent and provide more timely information to the media, City Council and public safety committee.
The software will let the department share information in real time with other departments.
“This is an opportunity to get officers back in the field and out of the office,” said Matt Polega, co-founder and president of Mark43. “They will not be spending so much time writing police reports … but getting back to the job they signed up for on day one.”
Mark43 partners with over 200 local, state and federal public safety agencies and police departments across the country, including the Boston Police Department.
In addition to Holyoke, the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office and the West Springfield Police Department are implementing Mark43 technology, he said.
“Crime doesn’t stop at a jurisdictional line. A criminal doesn’t say ‘I am only going to commit a crime in Holyoke because that is more convenient for the Holyoke Police Department.’ … Not only will Holyoke have a great view, they will be able to track crime as it happens. This coalition of police departments across the state and commonwealth will be able to work arm and arm to fight crime,” Polega said.
Mark43 got its start with the Massachusetts State Police and the Springfield Police Department 11 years ago, Polega said.
“To be coming back 11 years later is meaningful and rewarding,” he said. “Ultimately it makes us proud and humble to serve the committee that gave us our start.”
This story has been corrected to reflect that Mark43 partners with over 200 agencies across the country, and that the Massachusetts State Police is not a current client.
Original Story: https://www.masslive.com/police-fire/2024/01/no-more-floppy-discs-holyoke-police-department-will-overhaul-how-it-manages-data.html
