Clarkstown has gained a reputation as one of the safest and best small cities to live in the United States. For that, some credit must go to Clarkstown Police Department (PD), with its staff of 156 officers and 70 civilian employees.
Like many municipal police departments, Clarkstown PD is supported by a small IT team. The head is Sergeant Brian Gorsky, who after 17 years as a patrol officer, transferred to the IT division in 2011. At around the same time, Clarkstown PD shared much of its IT with the town hall—which had decided to move to G Suite. For Brian, it was an important step forward.
Back then, most patrol officers didn’t have their own email account, and the department didn’t have its own email server. Instead, email was accessible via five shared computers used for officers to write up reports.
The department couldn’t give each member of staff his or her own email address because, according to Brian, “there was no good way to synchronize individual accounts.”
Catalyst for a culture change
Cloud-based email was an obvious alternative, so the Clarkstown PD Gmail, the highly secure G Suite email solution. It was the start of a major cultural change across the whole department.“Almost everything we do now is electronic, and most of our internal communications are through email,” says Brian. “Everybody now uses Gmail in our organization. We no longer have to print copies of every memo for every employee, and we can share digital evidence faster and more securely than ever.”
“By moving everything onto Google, we're saving $20K to $30K a year in IT licensing.” Sergeant Brian Gorsky, Information Technology Division, Clarkstown Police Department
Superior security, substantial savings
Brian has found Gmail an ideal solution for Clarkstown PD’s needs. “It’s been easy to use—important for a workforce with varying degrees of IT knowledge—and the security has been excellent,” he says. “The spam filters are phenomenal. Very little gets through, and in the latest version even more phishing protection has been added.” That security, and the confidence Brian has in it, is clearly crucial for the sharing of digital evidence—particularly where that may include sensitive personal information.Best of all, it has proved extremely cost effective. “By moving everything onto Google, we're saving $20K to $30K a year in IT licensing,” Brian says. The savings are being invested in additional work with Google Cloud Premier Partner, Tempus Nova to streamline workflows, free up police officer time, and drive further savings.
Download to Learn More
To learn more about how G Suite enabled Clarkstown PD to share information and digital evidence, and to save time and money with the cloud, download the paper "Clarkstown Police Department: Catalyst for a culture shift."
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