New data centre streamlines paperwork for RCMP officers
Front-line RCMP officers can spend more time conducting patrols and investigations and less time behind the desk with paperwork thanks to a new data centre and call-back unit.
The data centre and call back unit are part of the Alberta government’s $10-million strategy to combat rural crime and ensure officers have a larger presence in the community.
The Police Reporting and Occurrence System (PROS) data centre pilot project, launched in June, enables police officers to input information into the RCMP database by phone. Civilian staff at the data centre then collect the information and input appropriately.
Prior to this, officers would have to travel to a detachment and manually update police files, instead of immediately returning to patrols or investigations.
The call-back unit, in effect since February, helps to make things more efficient on the front end. It diverts non-emergency calls for service that are neither time sensitive nor pose a threat to public safety to the call-back unit instead of front-line members.
There, experienced RCMP members connect with the caller and take it from there. If further investigation is required, the police file will be transferred to a front-line member for followup.
Types of calls the unit would handle include minor thefts, attempted frauds and scams, and reports of traffic offences that are not taking place at the time of the complaint.
For RCMP Const. Lindon Greene, stationed with the Morinville detachment, a rural area north of Edmonton, the PROS data centre has made a significant impact on his workload and allowing him to spend more time on the road and in the community.
“Night shifts, I’m actually about to go out and be involved and sit in these high crime areas,” said Greene.
“My gut feeling is about 60 per cent (of the time) I’m able to actually be out there and be on the road more than with the old system.”
Being out in the community more frequently can also deter somebody from committing crime, said Greene.
“They know a police officer is there in the community because they see us, we’re in marked police vehicles, they can see us there.”
He added community members have approached him for help while he’s been in his vehicle.
“This way our response time is instantaneous in some situations where with the old system, I’d now have to go back to the office and work on my files where as this way I’m able to be out in the community and be there for them,” said Greene.
A past issue for rural property owners and heard repeatedly by RCMP K Division acting commanding officer John Ferguson, has been RCMP response time, which he has looked into.
“Looking at 31,000 calls, priority one and priority two calls which are the most urgent, over the last two years, our average response time is approximately 20 minutes,” said Ferguson.
“I think about 20 to 30 per cent of that is less than 10 minutes and about 80 per cent is less than 30 minutes. That’s not to say we don’t take a little longer in some cases to get the calls.”
He added the overall average is pretty good, especially when looking at the large geographical distances RCMP members travel to get to calls.
However, with the data centre and call-back unit, Ferguson said RCMP members “should be able to respond to calls a lot quicker as they are not in the office and it is one less step.”
According to the RCMP, the call back unit has already diverted over 3,800 calls that would have previously been dispatched directly to front line officers, saving over 9,300 hours equal to nine general duty constable’s workload in one year.
Since its launch in June, the PROS data centre has saved more than 375 hours of data-entry time for RCMP front-line members, based on 868 police files entered.