We've been fortunate to work with police departments all over the place. Our target market is police agencies of under approximately 50 officers. Here's a look at a few of them:
Rhinebeck, NY PD
OIC: Sergeant Peter Dunn
Rhinebeck is a jewel of a place. This beautiful village in northern Dutchess County, NY, has been around since 1686. The elegant Beekman Arms on the main intersection in town has been going since 1766 and is advertised as America's oldest inn. The area is an eclectic mix of rural, village local and New York City chic that ebbs and flows with the seasons. By and large all these divergent styles mix and get along just fine along the sidewalks of Market Street, in the grounds of the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, and in the gorgeous Hudson Valley hills that surround the area along the Hudson River.
But no place is perfect, and sooner or later you gotta have the cops, even if it's just for a traffic accident or a fingerprinting request from a local resident (some of today's activity). When you need them, it's important that they're equipped with the best information systems you can get for them. Enter PolicePro in mid-July 2004, just a month before the annual Dutchess County Fair turns this quiet village into a very busy place for that last week in August. We helping the PD get ready for the year's business boom with a brand new database system that sped up all their record keeping and procedural stuff. We even hired ourselves on as volunteer dispatchers for part of Fair Week this year to give a boost to the on-the-job training that always accompanies a PolicePro install.
Working closely with the New York State Police, the Rhinebeck PD provides a subtle but positive and welcome presence in the VIllage and the Town as well, helping to maintain the quality of life that makes the area so attractive to so many kinds of people.
Since the PD provides police services in the Town as well as the Village, for Rhinebeck we wrote in capabilities that allow distinct reporting for both political jurisdictions. This kind of customization is one more area that sets us apart, whether it's a special Press Release function for an Alaskan PD or a complete alarm billing system in Westchester County, NY.
Foot patrol on the grounds of the Dutchess County Fair
Port Chester, NY PD
Chief of Police : Joseph Krzeminski
Lt. Jim Ladeairous surveying North Main Street
Only two miles on a side, Port Chester looks more like a New York City police precinct than a village. This densely populated and ethnically diverse setting, located between White Plains, NY and Greenwich, Connecticut, keeps over 60 police officers and support personnel plenty busy. On a busy 4-12 shift in summer, the desk can log as many as 80 calls. The landmark Capital Theatre has hosted MTV televised concerts by David Bowie and the Rolling Stones.
Chief Joseph Krzeminski recognized the need for computer database power in this busy agency. Since we arrived in 1998, the PCPD's system has grown to over 20 desktops and multiple servers. The technology does what it's supposed to - support the cops in their efforts towards best serving their very diverse population. We're proud that for over seven years, PolicePro is the software that makes it happen.
Our ability to quickly customize PolicePro's layouts and information flow to meet the needs of the police - rather than forcing the police to compromise to meet the requirements of the software - made us a hit on the first day the program went into service. The special needs of the Front Desk personnel required a very simple front end that would be inappropriate for many other agencies. Before we left town on our first day at the PCPD, the Daily Log had been written and put in service to address that exact need.
Skagway PD
Chief of Police: Ray Leggett
Dave near the top of the White Pass, Yukon Territory
SOUTH TO ALASKA - Sense of direction not so good? In 1999, we arranged to meet then-Chief Scott Eddy of the Skagway, Alaska PD in Charlotte, North Carolina right after the IACP Chief's Convention for training in their PolicePro install. Dave Lundgren and Chief Eddy worked for several days fine-tuning the then PolicePro 3 system. The Chief returned to Skagway with the finished result, which went into service at the end of 1999.
Time marches on. Chief Eddy retired, Chief Dennis Spurrier took over. PolicePro kept running the operations of the PD through the extremely busy tourist summer seasons and the pleasantly quiet off-season southern Alaskan winters, when the town returns to what residents prefer as normal.
Chief Ray Leggett arrived from the small state of Texas in the Fall of 2004. In February 2005, the PD moved to a brand-new PolicePro install, updating the system that has been in place for five years. Dave Lundgren spent a busy week in Skagway completing the install, customization and training with the department, and soaking up as much scenery and history as possible in his spare time.
This outfit polices the small city of Skagway, the gateway to the Klondike and a ton of Western history. When the Alaskan gold rush was on in the late 1800s, the jumping off point for prospectors was either Dyea and the Chilkoot Pass, or Skagway and the White Pass. After making endless trips over the passes carrying all their possessions, prospectors arrived at Lake Bennett in the Spring of 1899, where they built rafts, boats, or anything else to make the trip to Dawson, some 500 miles away.
Today practically every cruise ship that floats north of Vancouver stops here so tourists can see the glaciers, the spectacular train trip up the White Pass narrow guage railroad, and a well policed town whose officers know exactly what's going on with the help of their PolicePro network.
Part of the PolicePro system now in place in Skagway involves new remote access capability that now allows us to maintain and alter PolicePro from our offices, regardless of where in the world the police department is. This brings on a new era of continuing participation for us with our non-local clients that we could not do only a few years ago. We now have first-class interaction with all our remote-enabled client sites, allowing us to address requests within minutes of when they are received through our Basecamp-based client Intranet, and make changes or add features as we come up with them, regardless of whether the police department is down the street or 4,000 miles and four time zones away.
Hastings On Hudson PD, NY
Police Chief: Dave Bloomer
From the second floor of the municipal building in Hastings, you can see the George Washington Bridge spanning New Jersey and New York City, a couple of miles down the Hudson River. But when we got there in early 2000, these poor guys were still writing in a black ledger book. We got one of our best responses ever as we helped this busy PD move into the 21st century.
With a ton of assistance from Sergeant John DiBlasio and the tireless Hastings IT Director, Raf Zaratzian, we've put together a system that helps the cops get it done the way they need it. Chief Tom O'Sullivan's PD is one of our favorite stops when making the rounds of Westchester County. Raf is a goldmine for the Village, the PD, and for us as well, coming to our aid again and again in improving our own in-house technology. The Hastings PD is a great outfit, in great shape to take care of their populace these days.