Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

T. E. Blythe, Chief Constable

SUBJECT:

Common Police Records Management System, PRIME-BC

 

RECOMMENDATION

A. THAT Council approve the participation of the Vancouver Police Department, with other police agencies, in development of the PRIME-BC shared police Records Management System under the facilitation of E-Comm with costs allocated as indicated in this report.

B. THAT, subject to approval of the Chief Constable and Director of Finance, that Council endorse changes to the E-Comm Members Agreement to facilitate the new cost-sharing model related to RMS.

C. THAT the costs associated with participation of the Vancouver Police Department in PRIME-BC, estimated at $575,600 annually, be funded from operating savings within the departmental budget and THAT the Chief Constable report back prior to system implementation on the details of these savings and the disposition of any savings achieved beyond the costs of the system.

POLICY

Council has instructed that any proposal to expand programs or staffing must be accompanied by offsetting expenditure reductions or new revenues.

SUMMARY

The Vancouver Police Department is partnering, with other municipal police agencies, and the RCMP, in the acquisition of a common police information system that will replace current aging systems that are paper-based. The new platform will integrate mobile reporting and records management with Computer Aided Dispatch leading to one-time data entry. This will create efficiencies in police operations, and will result in more officer time available. Most importantly, eliminating the "islands" of police information which currently exist with separate police records systems will result in more criminals being identified.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to seek Council approval for the Police Department to participate in the development of a new records management and mobile reporting system that is integrated with E-Comm dispatch operations and implemented as a partnership with other police agencies in BC.

DISCUSSION

Vancouver Police implemented a Records Management System (RMS) in 1990. This system is functionally limited and relies on a database platform that is no longer supported by the vendor. An opportunity to share a RMS has arisen through the City's participation with the E-Comm project. E-Comm has been the catalyst for a renewed spirit of cooperation among municipal police agencies and the RCMP (the new radio system and consolidated dispatch).

It was envisioned at E-Comm that police information must be linked to a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and in May 1998, the E-Comm Board approved a process whereby the police dispatch partners would evaluate RMS options. E-Comm directors representing police agencies, Deputy Chief Paul Battershill and RCMP Superintendent Peter Martin, saw an opportunity not only for dispatch partners, but for all police in BC to share information. They received the endorsement of the BC Association of Chiefs of Police (BCACP) leading to the Police Records Information Management Environment (PRIME-BC) project. The project has a focus of "fight crime with PRIME". A thirteen member team of E-Comm, RCMP and municipal police representatives have engaged in a vendor selection process and have recommended to the BCACP and the E-Comm Board, that a joint bid from Richmond-based MacDonald Detweiller, and Ottawa-based Versaterm Systems be identified as the preferred submission. The Versaterm product has been implemented in locations such as: London Ontario, Ottawa-Carleton, Salt Lake City and Tampa Florida (in progress).

Both the BCACP and the E-Comm Board have endorsed further discussions with MDA/Versaterm in order to determine costs for participating agencies that include administration, support, and hardware. Current estimates put the cost at approximately $514 per officer per year which is approximately what access to the RCMP PIRS system cost when it was first brought out 17 years ago. Participation in the development of PRIME-BC has many potential benefits to the police department.

1. Police Officer Efficiency

Information technology is the most obvious and attainable investment we can make that will increase the productivity of a police officer. Empirical observations of the new RMS and mobile computing technology and workflow in other police agencies have shown police officer productivity gains.

In the United States, police agencies have obtained COPSMORE technology grants which total over $750 million over the past five years and the criteria for acceptance is that the investment must return police officer time to front-line and community policing duties. The new RMS will lead to more police officer time available, and they are more effective through improved access to information.

2. Improved Occurrence Management

This function handles the recording, filing, and access of reports from police investigations. Every month, over 10,000 reports are produced in a cumbersome process. As an example:

1. Citizen John Doe phones in a break-in to his home. The call taker enters Mr. Doe's information into the computer aided dispatch system (CAD).
2. The incident is passed (electronically) to a radio dispatcher who relays the information by voice, and likely transmits it at the same time to a mobile data terminal. The officer in the car transcribes the address and victim information to a notebook. The officer then attends the location and records more information in a notebook.
3. The next step is to retrieve a paper form and transcribe the information again. Forlengthy reports, the officer will spend time driving to the police station at 2120 Cambie to access support systems and avoid writing in the car or in a restaurant. Moreover, 30% of officers word process their reports and use computers in the police stations. If the case involves an arrest, the officer must drive to 312 Main Street so that reports can be immediately photocopied and given to the Jail.
4. Paper reports are collected once a day and taken to Quality Control where a Clerk III looks up the Statistics Canada (UCR) coding from a large binder, and identifies routing for photo copies (Ex. Sexual Offence squad for "peeping tom" reports). The report is next sent to Data Entry where a clerk enters incident and Mr. Doe's personal information into the RMS. The narrative text is not entered because of time/cost constraints. Characteristics of this process are:

· Four-time data entry of incident and Mr. Doe's personal particulars
· Valuable officer time utilized in driving to report writing locations which are away from assigned patrol areas
· Inaccurate RMS information arising from Data Entry clerks guessing at what an officer may have hand-written
· No electronic access to narrative information because it is not entered into RMS. Digital text is printed on paper, and treated as if it was hand-written

Based on a mobile reporting platform integrated to a CAD, a new RMS has been observed to provide:

· Largely paperless occurrence management systems which almost eliminates filing and copying duties. There is one-time data entry, occurring close to the source with CAD integrated to mobile workstations. Information is much more accurate
· Automatic routing (workflow management) and immediate access for reports
· More police officer time in the community as reports can be submitted electronically
· Improved human resource management practices arising from the enhanced capability to review the quality and quantity of work
· Improved investigative and crime analysis capabilities as data queries and search engines are deployed to access the vast quantities of information we collect

All police agencies in BC need to share information. The current VPD RMS is not interfaced with any other police agencies. Therefore, other police agencies (RCMP and municipal)outside of the city cannot access the substantial amount of information which our police department collects, and the VPD cannot access the records systems of adjoining agencies.
A recent example occurred with our Home Invasion Task Force who only became aware of a similar pattern home invasion in Coquitlam involving an elderly victim, through a radio news report. Our Detectives then phoned Coquitlam to compare investigative notes. Another recent example involves a gang associate who sought a criminal record clearance from the VPD because he wanted to volunteer at a youth center. Our RMS revealed his gang ties and he was denied his clearance. Had he applied for a clearance at any other local police agency, he would have received a clearance as they do not access the VPD RMS.

Information sharing was identified as a key recommendation in the 1994 Oppal Commission of Inquiry into Policing in BC. Justice Campbell, in his review of the Paul Bernardo case in Ontario, also concluded that police agencies must share information.

5. Stakeholder Involvement

The Attorney General has written to Police Boards and Councils and he unequivocally supports the project (see attached).

On August 18, 1999, the E-Comm Board passed a motion authorizing the General Manager to negotiate a contract with MDA/Versaterm subject to Council and Police Board approvals. Consistent with other E-Comm procurements such as the Radio and Computer Dispatch System, the Project Manager role is filled by Mr. Clyde Hosein, Manager of Facilities Development.

In addition to Vancouver, other agencies participating in Phase 1 are Richmond RCMP and Port Moody Police. Their Councils are being approached this month as well. Additional councils will be approached as Phase 2 (Greater Victoria) and Phase 3 (the remainder of Greater Vancouver) proceed. Phase 4 is the remainder of the Province.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

The business case for implementing a new RMS indicates that it can be achieved at no additional cost to the City.

1. Costs

The cost of developing and implementing the pilot phase of PRIME-BC is estimated at $4,018,200. The Federal RCMP has committed at least $480,000 to the capital costs as part of their involvement in developing a multi-jurisdictional information management tool. In addition, E-Comm is using $480,000 in dispatch costs (Police Uniform Resource funding) that the Police Services Committee and the E-Comm Board have agreed can be diverted to offset project costs in the area of server hardware, and administration. The URO funding is an investment that will result in more dispatch partners, which will lower costs for all participants in relation to the retirement of capital, startup, and the Computer Aided Dispatch system. The following table summarizes the cost allocations for Phase 1.

Capital Cost

$4,018,223

          

RCMP Funding

480,000

          

Net Cost

$3,538,223

Amortized 10 years, 6.1% =

 

$483,011

Annual Licence Fee

          

143,322

Annual Cost

          

$626,333

Misc. Costs.

          

$67,500

Total

          

$693,833

 

Police

Percent

Capital Cost

Annual

Misc. Cost.

Total

 

Officers

  

Share

Licence

    

Richmond

200

14.8%

$ 71,557

$ 21,233

$ 10,000

$102,790

Vancouver

1120

83.0%

400,720

18,904

56,000

575,624

Port Moody

30

2.2%

10,734

3,185

1,500

15,419

Total

1350

  

$483,011

$143,322

$ 67,500

$693,833

             

Notes: The amortization of the capital is over 10 years at 6.1%.

Participation by more police agencies during later phases of the project and the potential of additional RCMP federal funding (still in discussion) will reduce costs below the anticipated $514 per sworn member. The Vancouver Police costs are estimated at $575,624 based on average sworn staffing of 1120 officers ($514 x 1120 = 575,624). Costs will be applied on a per officer basis and could fluctuate with staffing levels in the future.

Equipment costs for laptop computers in police vehicles are already included in the police budget as part of the City's participation in the E-Comm radio and CAD systems. Sharing the RMS with other police agencies provides economies of scale in addition to theoperational benefits.

2. Offsetting Operational Savings

Based on experience of other policing agencies, the move to an electronic based RMS will result in cost savings. The Vancouver Police department anticipates that at least 15% of the 93 staff positions in the Information Section will not be required with system implementation. This allows for a cost neutral implementation of the new RMS.

In order to just offset the annual costs of the new system, it is anticipated that a budget reduction of $575,000 will be required. This is the minimum saving to which the department is prepared to commit if Council agrees to participate in the project. It is recommended that the disposition of additional savings be the subject of discussion between the Chief Constable and Council prior to the go live date for the new system. For example, the Emergency Coordinator's position which the Department is currently requesting could be funded from future records staff savings.

PERSONNEL IMPLICATIONS

In accordance with Article 14 of the collective agreement, formal notice has been given to Teamsters Local Union 31 that the Police Department intends to introduce a technological change that may affect the terms and conditions, or security of employment of a significant number of employees to whom the collective agreement applies. This is in addition to the previous discussions held over the past several years. The Teamsters Local has been provided with a copy of this report.

CONCLUSIONS

Implementing the PRIME-BC RMS will result in more criminals being identified.

There is the added benefit of the efficiency gains arising from replacing a decades-old reporting system with a mobile reporting-based, modern RMS. E-Comm is in the position of facilitating the realization of a extremely important public safety service that has long been desired in British Columbia, but never achieved. The Vancouver Police Department is a key partner in this shared system.

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ag991019.htm

 
 

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ag991019.htm

 

General Mgr./Dept. Head:

Date:

This report has been prepared in consultation with the departments listed to the right, and they concur with its contents

Report dated:

October 5, 1999

Author:

Inspector Jim Chu

Phone:

215-4705

Concurring Departments

Finance

 
 
 

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