By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Sitka Police Department says police blotter information will be limited for a few months while the department’s computer system changes are implemented.
“The old system was at death’s door,” Lt. Jean Achee said. “When we have to resort to going to eBay to get computer parts, that’s not good. That’s how the old system is.”
Until everyone is happy with how the eForce public safety records management and computer-aided dispatch system is working, Achee said, the police department will have only limited information available under a daily “Press Report.” The information includes the call number assigned, the time and date of the call, the location of the call, and the nature of the complaint.
Ordinarily the dispatch reports available to the Sentinel include more information on calls, and how the police department responded.
Achee said the same information eventually will be available again but it may take a few months before the system is at 100 percent, and ready for the public.
“It’s been up and running since yesterday,” he said. “We went live, and as we went live, we addressed issues with the software vendor. It’s a developing process ... If my dispatchers are not comfortable with how it is – it has to make workload smoother and easier, it needs to make sense.”
Every division is affected by the updated system, including officers, dispatchers, jailers and the animal control officer.
“We’re all working on it, ID’ing areas that are faulty, working with the software vendor to get it addressed and corrected,” Achee said.
It’s a brand-new system for the city, but one Achee has worked with in his previous jobs in Whittier, Bethel and Yakutat. The system worked well, meeting the needs of those departments, he noted. He said he expects it to work well here to correct the main problems with the old system – based on AS400 hardware – of insufficient storage space and difficulty in finding replacement parts.
“The new system is using current technology, with both the software and hardware,” he said. “We’re adjusting it to meet our needs here.”
He said the implementation of the Logan, Utah-based eForce system has been going well – “so far, as smooth as things can be” – but the department is still working out kinks. And until everyone is comfortable with how the upgraded system is operating – expected to be some two or three months from now – the dispatch reports will contain limited information for the press and public.
“It takes time but we have a shop that needs to be run,” he said. “And this is part of the things I need to address.”
The computer upgrades were approved in the fiscal year 2019 capital budget, with a budget of $360,000, said the city finance department. The city IT Director Grant Turner is overseeing the implementation of the software, working also with the IT specialist assigned to the police department, Richard Linn.
“It’s going to be a lot nicer for the officers and the rest of the staff,” Turner said.
