The Lamar County Sheriff’s Department has upgraded to the Caliber Online Records Management System, which provides deputies, administration and the public with real-time data-sharing and minor incident reporting.
The new Cloud-based system, which was made available to the department at 9:30 a.m. July 18, provides computer-aided dispatch, records management and forensics science related to more than 1,000 public safety agencies across America. Every patrol car and investigator will be able to access the system through a tablet or their cellphone, allowing them to upload photos or other data directly into the system rather than coming back to the sheriff’s office to do so.
“There’s local agencies that have it also, like Jail Tracker, so we can share that information without having to go through calling (for example) the Forrest County Sheriff’s Department and trying to get in touch with the right person,” Lamar County Sheriff Danny Rigel said. “(Previously), that might take three or four hours if they’re not at their desk, but now we can access it from our desk right here.”
The Caliber system allows agencies to do the following measures without the need for duplicate paperwork or travel back to a dispatch center:
- Promoting social distancing by reducing officer-to-public interactions for minor police reports;
- Servicing the community by reducing non-essential contacts, ensuring officers are able to provide help when emergencies arise; and
- Keeping officers on patrol and protecting communities by offering an alternate method for the public to report minor police reports without the need to dispatch an officer.
“So an officer getting ready to initiate a traffic stop has a ton of information at his fingertips that he would normally not be able to have,” said Koren McDaniel, who serves as Mississippi sales executive for Caliber. “Even just locally, being able to see a local warrant where you may see someone who has a warrant from Hancock County; you can easily call over there and say ‘hey, I’ve got the guy if you want to come over and pick him up.’”
Caliber also allows agencies to create and customize their own public forms, making them more effective as they are tailored to their unique set of needs and requirements. Agencies can make these forms available to the public via the agency’s own website.
Public forms support the following custom form field types:
- Date and time;
- Images;
- Text (single line);
- Text (multiple lines);
- Checkbox;
- Radio buttons; and
- Auto complete.
“A lot of times, they don’t put them in (the National Crime Information Center) as a wanted person,” Rigel said. “So if you listen to our scanners, the way we do it now, is if we get some guy from Petal, we’ll say check with us, Forrest County and Petal Police Department.
“Well, that ties up our dispatcher having to make phone calls to three different agencies, when (now) they can do it almost before they’re pulled over.
“So you know if this guy has assault and battery on a police officer, or is a flight risk. So it’s really all about communications.”
For more information on Caliber, visit www.caliberpublicsafety.com.
