Rockland County Sheriff's Department
in New York "is dedicated to the protection of life and property,
reduction of crime through patrol and enforcement, and the provision
of a safer environment in which citizens can live, work, and pursue a
better quality of life." In leveraging today's Web technologies,
The Rockland County Police Information Network (RCPIN) sought
out ways to improve their systems in order to best carry out this mission statement.
Challenge
Rockland County, New York like
many other government agencies has constant needs for information
retrieval. Significant technical challenges exist because the information
is distributed amongst various backend database systems used by the
numerous agencies. For example, when law enforcement wants to search
for information on a particular person, up to 4 different applications
need to be accessed and searched individually resulting in safety
vulnerabilities and lost productivity.
Solution – The WOW Multi-System Query Engine
To solve this problem, PlanetJ, using the WOW Multi-System Query Engine
feature, teamed with Rockland county to produce several graphical browser
based queries. These queries allowed entry of selection criteria which was
used by the WOW engine to search multiple backend databases. Results that
matched the search criteria are automatically combined and presented to
the user on a single integrated screen. This provides a significant time savings
for Rockland users and enhances public safety in cases where real time immediate
information is needed.
Requirements Details
RCPIN gathers and collects a large amount of data from
surrounding communities. What Rockland County needed was a single, efficient, and easy-to-use
application that could retrieve data stored on various backend database systems and used
by numerous county agencies. This application would need to be able to provide a quick
way of collecting and providing data for detectives.
How It Works
PlanetJ created a graphical web application using WOW to provide a secure and fast way to obtain
needed data. WOW first authenticates the RCPIN user and, with proper authentication, the user
is able to access the information. If not, the login will be rejected.
One of the detailed searches is seen in the screen below. Searching options include people, property,
vehicles, and firearms across multiple systems. The user can also obtain pictures and drill downs into
details associated with these people, incidents, or reports.
Detectives or public safety personnel can now run fully secured searches across any number of regions and are
able to make accurate decisions in a fraction of the time.
Hardware and Software Overview
ERP System: Rockland County: New World
ERP System: Local Counties/Agencies: Spectrum Justice System (SJS)
Web Server: WOW 6.5 Enterprise, Windows 2003, Apache Tomcat 5.5
Summary
Agencies like Rockland County Sheriffs Department (or any other
organization needing to retrieve and analyze data from multiple
systems) can immediately benefit from WOW's ease of use and
powerful Multi-System Query Engine to produce applications that
automatically combine data from any number of backend databases
or ERPs. Lt. Koval had this to say about the solution and his
experience with WOW and PlanetJ:
"As the Systems Administrator
for the Rockland County Police Information Network and a Lieutenant
with 24 years of law enforcement experience I can attest to the following:
PlanetJ has provided an amazing product that has opened avenues for public
safety data sharing that did not exist or were too costly to pursue. Their
WOW product is easy to use and cost effective. Most of all it provides me
with a tool to write custom, web based, reports for the police community
to use. The multi-system searches enable public safety officials to effectively
and easily submit a search once to query multiple databases at multiple locations.
This method of searching provides us with "real time" data as opposed to a
central data repository that agencies upload their data to. There are many
different record management systems out there for public safety and the
WOW product allows you to effectively search these disparate systems."
References