The Scottsdale Police Department Leverages Next Generation Technology to Enhance Crime Prevention
In the heart of Arizona and amid a rapidly evolving public safety technology landscape, the Scottsdale Police Department (Scottsdale PD) stands at the forefront of innovation. They leverage advanced technology to enhance public safety, optimize operations, and foster regional collaboration. As a pioneer and early adopter of Mark43, the Scottsdale PD has showcased its progressive approach to using cloud-native solutions to fight crime and improve community outcomes.
With a population of over 245,000 residents, a bustling tourist destination, and the host of major national events, Scottsdale faces unique public safety challenges. To address these demands, the Scottsdale PD has embraced modern technology under the leadership of Interim Chief Joe LeDuc, Interim Assistant City Manager Chief Jeff Walther and Assistant Chiefs Rich Slavin and Helen Gandara. Their commitment to innovation has positioned the department at the forefront of modern crime prevention and public safety.
The Challenges
Scottsdale, located east of Phoenix with 23 bordering cities, is responsible for many largescale events each year, including the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction and the Waste Management Phoenix Open, which bring millions of people to the region annually. They need public safety technology that is secure, scalable, resilient and interoperable to keep officers and community members safe.
The Scottsdale PD identified inefficiencies and bottlenecks in their previous records management system (RMS), resulting in a “downstream effect” of errors, delayed reporting, and frequent bounce-back errors. Additionally, their RMS system operated in a silo and was not easily accessible to officers on-the-go nor did it communicate with other mission-critical systems. This resulted in investigative delays, communication challenges, reporting errors, and officer frustration, which often led to overtime to complete necessary reports.
The Solution
To address these issues and ensure officers spent more time in their community and not behind a desk completing paperwork, the Scottsdale PD required a robust and modern RMS upgrade and a collaborative technology partner to help them get there. The new software needed to seamlessly integrate with their existing systems and configure with future technology partners. Additionally, the upgraded RMS would need to improve situational awareness for officers and support precision policing, while increasing overall crime data transparency and public trust.
In November 2022, the Scottsdale PD launched Mark43 RMS. Having a highly configurable RMS as the core system of record that integrates and stacks seamlessly with other essential technology systems like body worn cameras or even drones was crucial. “We’re looking for companies that work in lock step with one another for better real-time decision making and safety for our personnel. Mark43 tech is front and center to this,” said Assistant Chief Rich Slavin. By partnering with Mark43, the Scottsdale PD was able to combine their crime expertise with modern, cloud-native technology for better agency operations and community outcomes.
Mark43 RMS has transformed report writing for the Scottsdale PD, allowing officers to make quality connections on-the-go and support the investigative process. The open API enables seamless integration with other critical applications, allowing the Scottsdale PD to build a customized technology ecosystem that reduces data silos and improves cross-department decision-making.
“The report writing process is night and day compared to our old RMS system. Mark43 RMS has the checks and balances built into the report writing process to ensure our officers produce a clean report and that it gets routed properly and the officer back in the field that much quicker,” shared Assistant Chief Rich Slavin.
Mark43 Analytics provides the ability to pull clean and accessible data in real-time, enabling officers to make informed decisions based on accurate data. Assistant Chief Rich Slavin states, “Bad data can cause significant investigative delays and can cause you to go down rabbit holes.” He adds, “Companies like Mark43 are force multiplier for our department. We leverage the technology to reach conclusions and decisions faster, all based on good, accurate data.” This not only drives stronger operational strategies, but helps the department identify crime patterns and trends for more effective policing.
After having Mark43 for nearly a year, the Scottsdale PD also needed a JMS that was highly integratable to ensure seamless data sharing and collaboration across jurisdictions. The department partnered with Mark43 to build their JMS system:
“This was a very unique opportunity for us to take part in the creative and innovative product development process. We are very happy with how the JMS turned out—it’s super integratable with our county systems and it’s been a huge success…our jail staff have been very happy with it,” said Assistant Chief Rich Slavin.
The Impact
As a forward-thinking and progressive agency, the Scottsdale PD has seen the direct impact of having an innovative public safety technology partner. “Our secret sauce is combining the 25+ years of officer instincts with modern technology like Mark43″. The technology has not only transformed day-to-day operations but unlocked new efficiencies, such as:
- Officer situational awareness and mobility: “Mark43 has been huge for officer situational awareness,” shared Assistant Chief Rich Slavin. Officers can manage and access their data and reports within one central system on-the-go, eliminating timely merging and outdated documentation.
- NIBRS compliance: NIBRS compliance is native to Mark43, ensuring that all federal and state reporting requirements are met. This has eliminated the risk of costly fines and administrative burdens on the department.
- Real-time data sharing: Mark43 has also improved workflows between the officers and the department’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC), enabling data-driven policing. Assistant Chief Rich Slavin shares, “When we’re on scene and need information and good, clean data someone in our Real Time Crime Center or the officer standing at the scene has the ability to pull this data up in real-time from Mark43 RMS for greater safety and understanding.”
- Enhanced security and compliance: Built on the AWS GovCloud, Mark43 RMS, JMS and Analytics offer the highest level of security for the department. This includes superior encryption standards, infrastructure that exceed CJIS requirements and StateRAMP High Authorization.
The extensive Mark43 partner ecosystem of over 130 partners has allowed the department to seamlessly share data across other platforms, systems and jurisdictions. As Assistant Chief Rich Slavin puts it, “Mark43 is an important cog in a large important technology wheel. The ability to integrate therefore becomes one of your strongest assets and the ease of combining our existing technology like Flock, Aerodome, and Axon seamlessly into the Mark43 technology was a key factor in moving forward. Even if you have a great product, if it works in a silo, we’re not interested. We need our data to flow.” He adds,
“We have a huge ecosystem of tech vendors that come together to give us the information we need for the best community outcomes and officer safety. As the Assistant Chief, it’s the ability to bring our vendors together and squeeze the juice out of all these technology products that has been extremely successful for me and our department.”
This partnership exemplifies how configurable and scalable cloud-native technology can transform public safety operations. The department has improved their ability to manage and share crime data, officer safety, data accuracy and community outcomes. Mark43 is honored to partner with the Scottsdale PD as they set a new standard for effective and efficient policing across the state.
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