Teague helps police coordinate records

June 23, 2009

Teague and Stidham explain the records program.

United State Rep. Harry Teague is guiding $400,000 through Congress for a new recordkeeping system to help all of Valencia County’s law enforcement departments better coordinate their records.

“This new technology will make life easier for local law enforcement and harder for criminals,” Teague said.

He said crime has been on the rise in Valencia County, alluding to local news articles about a county of small communities experiencing big city crime because of its close proximity to Albuquerque.

The centralized data software program, to be used by the county and municipalities, will link all of the criminal records among the departments and with officers on the street via laptop computers in their vehicles. The database will be maintained at the Valencia Regional Emergency Communication Center in Los Lunas.

“It will combine all of the records management systems for every police department in the county,” said Bosque Farms Police Chief Joe Stidham. “If an officer in Belen stops somebody or is dealing with a robbery suspect, or anything of that nature, they’ll be able to go into the records system, pull that person up. They’ll know if we dealt with that person here in Bosque Farms, or if the county has dealt with them, or Los Lunas has dealt with them.”

The departments currently use a records management program called Sleuth. It isn’t internet-based and requires officers to file reports at police stations.

“Our officers have to go to the police departments to fill out their reports,” Belen Police Chief Mike Chavez said. “If we get this new system, the officers will be spending more time out on the road. They’ll actually be able to do the reports from their vehicles, instead of downtime inside the police department.”

All of the departments, with the exception of the Belen Police Department, have vehicles equipped with a mobile data system, which include a laptop, printer and ID card reader to identify who’s using it. The new internet-based program will be accessible on those laptops.

Chavez said he has applied for a $120,000 grant to equip his department’s police cars with laptops. In the meantime, Belen police will make use of the new records system from the police station.

“This is the office,” he said, pointing to a mobile data system in a Bosque Farms police car. “You won’t have to go to the office.”

The software program, created by Motorola, is also expected to cut down the amount of time officers spend filling out and filing paperwork, streamlining the process through dropdown menus and other shortcuts.

The funding was passed by the United States House of Representatives as part of a justice-related appropriations bill last week. It goes to the United States Senate for passage and then to the White House for the president’s signature. Teague said he expects the bill, with his earmark, to pass without a problem.

Once the legislation is signed and the money is dispersed, a Motorola official said his company can have the program running within weeks, since it doesn’t require installation on individual computers. Training will be required so officers understand how to use the program.

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