Scalable System Enables Future Upgrades

• 66% Reduction in report writing and data entry time
• 10 times more data storage available for future implementations and services
• Incode^® public safety’s scalability let Jasper leverage four servers

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Jasper, Texas, located 130 miles northeast of Houston, has a base population of approximately 8,500, which grows to anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 during the summer months. The city is a popular destination for people who enjoy hunting, fishing, or just want to spend some of their vacation time at the lake.

With so many seasonal transplants coming in, the population of this city doubles, and the Jasper Police Department relies on its 24 sworn officers to be its eyes and ears out in the public. The department counts on Incode^® public safety solutions to help it keep an eye on crime during these upticks, so officers can:

• Track the information they want and keep a database of visitors/newcomers committing crimes
• View any repeat offenders who have returned to the town
• Determine when and where crimes are happening in the city

The Challenge

The Jasper Texas Police Department has used Incode public safety solutions since 2002. Since then, the city’s population has grown – as have the number of Jasper Police Department officers – and technology overall has advanced at a rapid pace. The department’s software kept up with these advances, but there was a gap when it came to the department’s hardware and storage capabilities. At the time, the department operated with a sole server that was tasked with handling all data storage and records management duties. It saw a need to improve these areas to make sure it was getting the most out of its system.

These hardware improvements needed to increase the storage capabilities to handle the data load that comes with the department’s growing case files (i.e., crime scene videos, evidence photos, audio recordings) while also enabling it to prepare for future technology upgrades it would like to make, which include adding:

• Mobile data terminals (MDT’s)
• Mobile ticket writers
• Mobile cameras
• Wireless connectivity in patrol cars

“[We] had this vision to upgrade and be more functional across the entire landscape in regard to technology,” said Joshua Hadnot, detective with the Jasper Police Department. “All that stuff was taken into account, so our system can actually compete with larger departments as far as data and retention, storage, media space, the whole works.”

“Obviously, we’re taking small steps to get to where we really want to get to, but the world is so technology-based, police officers have MDT’s and other forms of technology out in the field that we don’t have at this moment,” Hadnot continued.

The Solution

The Jasper Police Department called on Tyler Technologies to help figure out how to better leverage the capabilities of its existing Incode public safety solution, so that it was possible for the department to achieve its goal of being on par with other larger, more technologically advanced departments.

After evaluating different options, the Jasper Police Department and Tyler Technologies decided that expanding servers to enhance data storage and usage would help the department get the most out of its computer-aided dispatch and records management systems. With Incode public safety’s scalability coupled with the additional servers, the Jasper Police Department also felt that it would be have the capabilities needed to expand and add technology in the future.

“Incode public safety really provides a platform to be able to do those things on a broader scale,” said Hadnot. “It allows us to increase manpower on the street from three men to maybe five or six and allows for intake of reports to go through a vast majority of processes efficiently, so we can get from dispatch to disposition really, really quickly versus a long, drawn-out two or three-week process.”

The Results

The Jasper Police Department had four separate servers installed in January of 2019. Incode public safety’s scalability allowed the department to use these servers to process separate functions of its system and have more efficient and streamlined procedures across the board.

With Incode public safety on these new servers, the Jasper Police Department experienced benefits that included:

Faster data access and processing

• Separation of data, applications, and communications processes to different servers allowed each to function independently and provide faster access for anyone using Incode public safety

Reduced time writing reports and working with data

• Report writing time and time dealing with inputting case data was reduced, on average, from a 45-minute process to a roughly 15-minute process per case file

Easy integration with court partner

• Police staff can easily share and access data with justice partners in the municipal court that use Incode^® court software on their own server, which was added as part of this implementation

Created more robust electronic records

• Incode public safety’s records management capabilities paired with the additional storage these servers provided allowed police staff to electronically store more photos and videos with their associated case files

Greater power and storage to enable future upgrades

• Easy functionality of Incode public safety with the new servers along with the ability to store up to 10 times more data than the previous setup has set the Jasper Police Department up for a future of possible MDT implementations and/or other mobile services
• The increased storage gives them the ability to keep electronic case files in the system that date as far back as 1990, which is especially useful for looking into repeat offenders or when investigative leads surface that can close a cold case

“[Tyler Technologies] has been great as far as the expanded system they were able to provide,” said Hadnot regarding the new server installation. “This really helps us out as far as planning for projected items for the future such as MDTs and anything else that we can use with our Incode public safety software to be able to be highly efficient in what we do, which is provide a public service.”