Seligman PD applying for grant for new software
February 27, 2019
Vinnie Roberts
Seligman Police Chief Matt Phillips is working on ways to give his department the ability to more effectively and independently patrol the city. To move the department forward, Phillips is applying for a grant that will allow the city to purchase new software to aid in record management and reporting crimes.
Phillips’ grant request was approved by Seligman City Council to apply fin hopes of getting assistance in purchasing the new software from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Program. The program offers financial assistance to qualifying local law enforcement branches in the purchase of new equipment.
The new software, the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), will allow Seligman P.D. to better network with other software used by local prosecutors and court clerks to cut down on the time involved in field paperwork.
“It’s going to take a lot of time out of the process,” said Phillips. “We can just scan the back of driver’s licenses, and the person’s information will just pull up for us.”
“It’ll do our property and evidence, any reports that we write, our summons and anything that we need to submit to the state,” Phillips continued. “It’ll automatically upload those things where they need to go which will cut down on the time we spend on paperwork.”
According to Phillips, the grant, if accepted, will make $17,949 in funds available to the Seligman Police Department for the software. Of that money, $9,448 will pay for a one-time use fee for the software, and the remaining $8,501 would pay for the annual usage fee.
If the department’s initial grant request is approved, an annual renewal grant request will need to be filed in order to pay for the yearly $8,501 usage fee. With the help of the grant, the NIBRS software won’t come at any cost to Seligman taxpayers.
Phillips says that the current system used by most law enforcement for field reporting, Omnigo, has a variety of flaws that make filing paperwork in the field time consuming and arduous.
The current system has little to no networking with other reporting systems, such as the Show-Me Court system used by prosecutors and other Missouri legal officials. This means in order to file paperwork and get it in to the hands of prosecutors and other departments, Seligman Police must file their paperwork and then manually transfer it to those systems.
Phillips also says that Omnigo system has flaws regarding its scanning and records that the new NIBRS system would do away with entirely.
“[Omnigo’s] scanning on licenses takes a little more time,” said Phillips. “It’s not actually scanning the barcode, it’s scanning the whole license. In the amount of time it takes to scan it, you could enter it all in by hand.”
Under the new NIBRS system, Seligman officers would only need to scan the barcode located on the back of a driver’s license to pull up the records of a given individual.
Phillips’s grant application request was approved by Seligman City Council on Monday, February 11. The grant was then submitted to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Program and currently awaits approval.
Vinnie Roberts
Seligman Police Chief Matt Phillips is working on ways to give his department the ability to more effectively and independently patrol the city. To move the department forward, Phillips is applying for a grant that will allow the city to purchase new software to aid in record management and reporting crimes.
Phillips’ grant request was approved by Seligman City Council to apply fin hopes of getting assistance in purchasing the new software from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Program. The program offers financial assistance to qualifying local law enforcement branches in the purchase of new equipment.
The new software, the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), will allow Seligman P.D. to better network with other software used by local prosecutors and court clerks to cut down on the time involved in field paperwork.
“It’s going to take a lot of time out of the process,” said Phillips. “We can just scan the back of driver’s licenses, and the person’s information will just pull up for us.”
“It’ll do our property and evidence, any reports that we write, our summons and anything that we need to submit to the state,” Phillips continued. “It’ll automatically upload those things where they need to go which will cut down on the time we spend on paperwork.”
According to Phillips, the grant, if accepted, will make $17,949 in funds available to the Seligman Police Department for the software. Of that money, $9,448 will pay for a one-time use fee for the software, and the remaining $8,501 would pay for the annual usage fee.
If the department’s initial grant request is approved, an annual renewal grant request will need to be filed in order to pay for the yearly $8,501 usage fee. With the help of the grant, the NIBRS software won’t come at any cost to Seligman taxpayers.
Phillips says that the current system used by most law enforcement for field reporting, Omnigo, has a variety of flaws that make filing paperwork in the field time consuming and arduous.
The current system has little to no networking with other reporting systems, such as the Show-Me Court system used by prosecutors and other Missouri legal officials. This means in order to file paperwork and get it in to the hands of prosecutors and other departments, Seligman Police must file their paperwork and then manually transfer it to those systems.
Phillips also says that Omnigo system has flaws regarding its scanning and records that the new NIBRS system would do away with entirely.
“[Omnigo’s] scanning on licenses takes a little more time,” said Phillips. “It’s not actually scanning the barcode, it’s scanning the whole license. In the amount of time it takes to scan it, you could enter it all in by hand.”
Under the new NIBRS system, Seligman officers would only need to scan the barcode located on the back of a driver’s license to pull up the records of a given individual.
Phillips’s grant application request was approved by Seligman City Council on Monday, February 11. The grant was then submitted to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Program and currently awaits approval.