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Ofc. Marc Hodges, Project Coordinator Maui Police Department

MPD Report Warrior The Maui Police Department creates a highly-successful police reporting system using front-line officers and minimal funding. Ofc. Marc Hodges, Project Coordinator Maui Police Department 55 Mahalani St., Wailuku, Hawaii 96793 July 17, 2003 2003 Traffic Records Forum

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Ofc. Marc Hodges, Project Coordinator Maui Police Department

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  1. MPD Report Warrior The Maui Police Department creates a highly-successful police reporting system using front-line officers and minimal funding. Ofc. Marc Hodges, Project Coordinator Maui Police Department 55 Mahalani St., Wailuku, Hawaii 96793 July 17, 2003 2003 Traffic Records Forum Denver, Colorado Note: Products mentioned are not endorsed by the County of Maui.

  2. Maui Police Department A moderate-sized police agency with 400+ officers and civilians serving 140,000 residents and 2 million visitors annually across a four-island county.

  3. The Challenge: Ever-increasing demands for police services are taxing Department resources. New efficiencies are needed. The Department’s antiquated police reporting system, which relies on pens, typewriters and carbonless forms, was ripe for overhaul and streamlining to improve operational efficiency. Budgets are tight and procurement procedures lengthy. Monies for a major reporting and records system overhaul are secured, but implementation is years away. An interim computerized police reporting system that could do the job without breaking the bank was needed.

  4. The Opportunity: Front-line patrol officers, frustrated with laborious and outdated manual police report preparation methods, wanted to help build the interim police reporting system, and demonstrated the expertise to do so. Department leadership identified key advantages in using its own officers to build the system: 1) Reduced cost; 2) Shortened procurement cycles; 3) Department control of the product; 4) A street-savvy product made by officers for officers; 5) User buy-in.

  5. The Plan: In a bold move, Department leadership gathered seven front-line street officers to tackle the project, provided a small budget, empowered the team to build the system, and directed all components of the Department to assist. The team consisted of three computer-proficient street officers, three street officers with little to no computer experience, and one street officer with database development experience. The team was tasked with building a prototype computer police reporting system, beta-testing the system during patrol duties, and reporting its findings to Department leadership.

  6. The Strategy: The team used off-the-shelf relational database software to replicate the 10 most commonly used Department police reporting forms and to embed these forms into a multi-user client-server database structure. To ease transition from paper to on-screen reporting, the team emphasized making the on-screen forms look just like the paper forms the officers were used to. The team used existing Department PCs and LAN infrastructure to deploy accessibility of the database to PCs at key locations in the Department’s main station and in satellite stations.

  7. Building and Testing the System: The team built the prototype computer police reporting system, known as the Accelerated Interim Reporting System (AIRS), over the course of a month. The team then used the system over the course of three months to prepare several hundred actual police reports while performing their regular patrol duties. The team made constant improvements to the system as needs and shortcomings were identified.

  8. Server-Client Multi-User: The system uses a central server and could support up to 250 simultaneous clients.

  9. Findings: The team found that the new system which it had built was fast, flexible, and easy to develop and use. The three team members with little prior computer experience adapted quickly to the new technology and did as well with the system as those with prior computer experience. The team found that the new system made police work faster, produced better reports, and improved morale. The rest of the Department’s patrol officers were clamoring for permission to use the system. The team changed the name of the system from AIRS to “Report Warrior”, and recommended Department-wide deployment.

  10. Full Deployment: Department leadership approved full deployment of Report Warrior. All officers were permitted to use the system on a voluntary basis.

  11. Usership approaches 90%: In the year and a half since Report Warrior was built, usership has grown steadily. Report Warrior is now used to prepare about 90% of the Department’s police reports.

  12. Brief Demo…

  13. Cost-Effective: The Report Warrior Project has been highly cost-effective:

  14. Recognition: The Maui Police Department is a CALEA-accredited police agency. During its most recent triennial review of the Department, CALEA singled out Report Warrior as an area of excellence in the Department’s overall performance. Use of Report Warrior as a national exemplar is now being considered.

  15. Next steps: The power and flexibility of the system, as well as the ease and low cost of development, have spurred plans for new initiatives. The Department is working with partner agencies, especially Hawaii State DoT Highways and the Hawaii State Judiciary, to build additional capabilities into Report Warrior that leverage resources by meeting mutual needs. Current initiatives include expansion of the Report Warrior network infrastructure to include more access points, development of electronic traffic citations, deployment of Report Warrior over laptops and wireless networks, and improving efficiencies by funneling data to partner agencies.

  16. Conclusions: Report Warrior has been a highly-successful initiative. Development costs were low. Return is high. Productivity and morale are up. The system enables new opportunities, including e-citations and better inter-agency teamwork. This success may be a model. Departments needing custom police data and reporting software solutions may be able to build them in-house. Benefits can include lower cost, faster development, close customization, product ownership, and user buy-in.

  17. Acknowledgements: This Initiative would have been impossible without the continued trust and support of Chief Phillips, Deputy Chief Akana, the sworn and civilian personnel of the Maui Police Department, and the Maui Police Commission, Maui County MIS, Maui Fire Department, the Office of the Mayor, the First and Second Circuits of the Hawaii State Judiciary, and many others not named. The assistance of all these persons and agencies is greatly appreciated and gratefully acknowledged.

  18. Closing Thought: Taking risks to empower employees, even those at the lowest levels of an organization, can produce substantial benefits for an agency.

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