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TO HELP REDUCE PAPERWORK BOTH IN THE FIELD AND OFFICE, THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT IS DEPLOYING A SOLUTION USING POCKET PCS, SYNCHROLOGICS MOBILE SUITE, AND SOFTWARE FROM WIRELESS SOLUTION PROVIDER INFOKALL.
Organization Overview
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) is the largest organization of its kind anywhere in the world. The department is responsible for various law enforcement tasks in an area that sprawls over more than 3,100 square miles in Southern California and is home to more than 2 million citizens. The department's workforce includes more than 8,000 officers and more than 5,000 civilian employees. They are deployed across 10 divisions that include 3 patrol divisions and other units responsible for activities such as correctional services, court services, and administration and training.
Business Situation
In an effort to contain costs and improve the efficiency of its operations, LASD issued a request to technology companies seeking a mobile automation solution for officers in the field. The goal was to help deputies more accurately record information in civil processes such as bank garnishments and eviction notices while reducing the paperwork typically associated with these tasks. Traditionally, these processes included multipart paper forms with data that had to be entered in the field and reentered into back-end systems at the end of a shift, creating delays in reporting and sometimes resulting in inaccurate data.
Solution
LASD chose a solution that uses Microsoft® Windows® Powered Pocket PC devices running Data Synchronization software from Synchrologic, a Microsoft Mobility Partner Advisory Council member, along with a wireless-enabled reporting application designed by Infokall. The system, currently in a test pilot program, allows officers to enter data on civil processes with an easy-to-use application running on ruggedized Compaq iPAQ devices. The information is automatically transmitted over a Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) wireless network to a back-end Adabas database, which greatly reduces the amount of data-entry time required by officers and office personnel, while expediting the pace of the civil procedures, a feature that is particularly important in processes involving bank transactions and other time-critical elements.
Pocket PC Provides Speed, Efficiency
"Synchrologic's leading mobile computing technology combined with Infokall's understanding of the needs of public safety environments gives us the best overall solution we needed for our field officers and civil office administrators," says LASD's Lieutenant Jim Oneal.
The solution is straightforward. When officers report for duty on their shifts, they obtain Pocket PC devices that already have been populated with data pertaining to the officer's particular duties for that day. The application designed by Infokall covers five kinds of legal processes including subpoenas, summons, writs, levies, and warrants. When an officer turns on the Pocket PC device, he or she sees all the tickets that are outstanding. At the point of serving a notice, the officer opens up that particular screen and enters relevant information using drop-down boxes. The system automatically enters the time that the action takes place and requires the officer to fill in all vital information fields before the file is sent, thus ensuring the completion of important data. If the officer is in a "shadow" area where wireless transmission is difficult or impossible, the system waits for an operating area and then automatically sends the file.
The solution also allows the administrative staff of the sheriff's department to track and view officer field activity on a more real-time basis. Additionally, Synchrologic's Systems Management tools provide the department's information technology staff with the means of delivering software, files and other information to the Pocket PCs, as well as a way to track the hardware and software assets on the mobile devices in the field.
Integrating Into Variety of Databases
"The power and flexibility of the Pocket PC platform allows organizations using our software to mobilize robust and legacy back-end databases such as the LASD's Adabas database," says John Dancu, President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Synchrologic. "With Synchrologic Data Synchronization, we can offer support for a variety of client and server databases. Data-type conversions are managed automatically, and multiple change-capture options ensure compatibility with the widest range of database options. Our software also provides mechanisms to streamline the communications sessions, which helps lower the cost of the wireless transmissions while increasing the utility of the device."
Pocket PC was Infokall's "choice of OS from the start," according to Sathish Gajaraju, Vice President of Technology for Infokall.
"For what the sheriff's department was trying to do, the Pocket PC platform was ideal," he says. "It is a secure but smaller version of other Windows operating systems, so it integrates seamlessly with other Windows-based back-end systems used by the LASD. In the future, they will be able to take advantage of this seamless integration and flexibility to deploy additional applications that could expand even more the ability of sheriff's deputies to do their jobs."
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