There's no escaping the law in Meade County After trading in their deputy marshal badges for stealing horses, the infamous Dalton gang often rode into Meade County, Kansas to hide out at their sister Eva's house. They even dug a tunnel from her house to the barn so they could slip out when the law came knocking on the door. They were so successful there that when they went to California to rob trains and banks before being gunned down in a shoot-out. But those days are long gone. These days, it's pretty hard to hide out from the law in Meade County. That's because the Sheriff's office has been using image to keep records--and inmates--straight. Alan Feldman, office deputy for the County, explained that before using image, all mug shots were taken with a Polaroid and crime scenes were shot with 35 millimeter film that was sent out for processing. "The time lapse for film processing was pretty heavy," he noted. "We wanted imaging to cut all that out. Now we have no more film buying or processing costs." He added that in the past, photos could get lost in the paper shuffle. Now they and all related documents are secured in the index so they can be easily pulled up--in seconds at the touch of a button. Officers and jailers have the option of printing only what they want, rather than the entire file. Meade County runs Real Vision Imaging software on the AS/400 in conjunction with law enforcement software provided by System Solutions, Inc. "We looked at stand-alone image systems and they were too limited," Feldman observed. "They had no way of archiving like this system does. Our images can be accessed from any station rather than only one." Most inmates come from outside the County. The forms that detail the charges, mug shots, and other related documents are now imaged and stored in one electronic file for easy, fast access when state prisoners are booked. "We used to keep an entire paper file in an active drawer for inmates and we don't have that shuffle anymore. Booking time has decreased from 30 minutes to 10 minutes. It's made a huge difference." The sheriff's office was the first step for Meade County's image solutions. Appraisers have started taking more than 800 aerial photos throughout the county and Feldman noted that all departments will use image for county records and archiving to reduce the archiving space needed. Officers are also using laptops in the field for more accuracy on accident and incident reports. Feldman said, "They can also view the images they've taken right on their laptops and discard what they don't need at the scene." When the officers return to the station, they simply plug their laptops into the AS/400 to upload the information for later use. He sees Meade County going paperless. "Eventually most
of my recordkeeping will go to index capabilities, so I won't have paper
files." Feldman also noted that the image system has been covered
by the revenue from these out-of -county prisoners. And thanks to this
additional revenue stream, Meade County is building an additional 48-bed
annex to it's jail to house more county inmates. "That wouldn't
have happened without image." | |
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