Agenda - Council - 03/22/2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Anoka County Public Safety Data System Who is involved in this project? The Anoka County Joint Law Enforcement Council (JLEC) is a joint powers entity comprised of all chief law enforcement officers, the sheriff, county V` attorney, a fire chief, together with county commissioners and city council members. The JLEC has a successful 40-year track record of fostering and managing shared criminal justice programs and consolidated services including major crimes investigation, a consolidated police records system for all 11 law enforcement agencies, and a county -wide dispatch center. For this project, we are working together with the Anoka County Fire Protection Council as well. What is the project? The JLEC is seeking to update the public safety records and information systems. To fund this project, we are seeking to revise the bonding authority granted to the Anoka County Board for the implementation of 800 mhz radio communications in 2002 so that the same mechanism can fund future countywide public safety initiatives. The project currently in development would replace or upgrade several dated critical public safety records and information service applications in the communications/dispatch center, the police records system, fire service dispatch and records systems, and jail records. The vision for the future of Anoka County's public safety information systems is one of further consolidation and complete integration providing for seamless collection, dissemination, archiving, and analysis of public safety data. We want the right people to have the right data at the right time. The JLEC and the Fire Prevention Council will be seeking other funding sources for this project including grants, but we anticipate that bonding will be necessary. The JLEC has proposed legislation, with County Board approval, to revise Minn. Stat. §383E.21 which permitted the tax for the public safety levy for 800 mhz radio to appear on a separate line item on property tax statements. This allows our citizens to know exactly where those tax dollars are being spent. Why is the JLEC proposing this project? Currently, public safety information systems in Anoka County are fragmented with different systems being utilized by different disciplines. Call records in the 911 center are not integrated with either police or fire records, requiring either cumbersome "work- arounds" or manual re -keying of already entered data. The countywide law enforcement records system is at the end of its lifespan and does not provide records management for fire or emergency management. Anoka County's jail records require officers to handwrite data already entered into the police records system so that it may be re -keyed into the jail records system. Each time data is transferred from one system to the next, time is wasted and errors may be introduced. Additionally, because of errors in our records across these multiple systems, Anoka County had the highest rate of suspense files in the metro area in 2010, with 14% of our criminal records not being recorded properly due to data errors. Metro counties with better integration of their systems have rates around 5%. We are concerned that we do not have accurate criminal history data as a result.