Police to push far less paper

Marisa O’Neil

On the television show “Cold Case,” detectives root through a massive

room of file boxes and evidence from old, unsolved cases.

But real-life scenes like that will play out less frequently in

local police departments as more files are in the computers and out

of dusty basements. In the not-too-distant future, loose papers and

file folders could be endangered species in some departments.

On Nov. 1, the Costa Mesa Police Department started the laborious

switch to a new, computerized records management system for the first

time in more than 20 years, civilian commander Scheralee Ford said.

Once the new system is in place, and other components are added over

the next year or so, information typed in by officers will flow

electronically to everyone who needs it.

“When a report comes into the station, it’s entered into the

system, which knows by statute where the report is to go next,” Ford

said. “There are less delays getting it to the right detective to get

to work, and it’s all done electronically, so we’re not doing the

paper shuffle.”

Ultimately, an officer will be able to enter a report and send it

for approval to a supervisor, she said. From there, information will

go to detectives, if necessary, and to the records department.

Now, officers write reports and submit hard copies for approval.

Then, records technicians type them into the system.

Managing the amount of records and paperwork that comes through a

police department is a massive job, Newport Beach Police Lt. John

Desmond said. It takes about six months to train new employees to

enter and manage data in the records department, he said.

“We have someone working in records 24 hours a day, seven days a

week, 365 days a year,” he said. “They never close. The records

section works every day, including Christmas.”

Police work involves volumes of paperwork and report writing,

often the least favorite part of an officer’s job. With the new

system in Costa Mesa and planned laptop computers that can be used

for report writing in patrol cars, the process will be simplified,

Ford said.

“We need our policemen in the field, not in the station [writing

reports],” she said. “If they can respond in the field, the community

is better served.”

Newport Beach Police already have laptop computers in patrol cars,

Desmond said. Officers still print out hard copies of reports for

supervisor approval, and the information must be typed in.

But that department also has a document imaging system, which

allows them to scan every piece of paper into its network, Desmond

said. Newport police have documents dating back to 1994 scanned in

and are working on the rest, he said.

Most of the files that pre-date 1994 are on microfiche or

microfilm, he said.

“We still have some hard copies, but we’re in the process of

destroying the old paper copies,” Desmond said.

Costa Mesa police keep most records up to five years, but major

cases like murders and rapes are kept indefinitely, records manager

Ellen Herter said. Costa Mesa doesn’t have files on microfilm or

microfiche, but hopes to get a document imaging system like Newport

Beach’s, she said.

Until then, Costa Mesa still has thousands of files from old cases

dating back half a century, Herter said. And the department had to

wait until things got up and running before records technicians could

enter new information into the system, meaning they have to play

catch-up this week, Ford said.