Most police departments in the county have their own records management system but that information is not accessible to all law enforcement agencies in the county.
FE/Kimball, a Fairfax, Virginia-based consulting firm that specializes in planning, designing and implementing telecommunications systems, is being hired at a cost of about $185,000 to help identify a vendor capable of operating one records management system that all of Winnebago County's law enforcement agencies can use to input and extract information. The Winnebago County Sheriff's and Rockford Police departments — the county's two largest police agencies — will each contribute $75,000 toward the consulting fee. The balance will be divvied up among the remaining police agencies in the county.
Loves Park Police Deputy Chief Mike McCammond said the goal is to make the job of policing more efficient and safer for officers.
"If I were to enter someone's name in our system I would see if we ever wrote them a ticket, if they were involved in a traffic crash, or if they ever had a medical call or a domestic call at their house," he said. "If I wanted to know if Rockford had ever stopped and wrote that person a ticket or if they had been in a crash in Rockford, I would have to go to a different system to look that up.
"Agencies like South Beloit, Roscoe and Rockton use their own RMS system that we don't have access to. We have to call them. So we're looking for that data warehouse that holds all of that information so that you get that one-stop shop to find out all of the context. It makes your job easier and safer because you are going to have that information upfront."
McCammond said a police department's records management system is different from the Illinois Law Enforcement Agencies Data System, which most police agencies use and is operated by the Illinois State Police. Information collected in LEADS may include active warrants, license plate registration and concealed permit information.
The timetable to find a vendor and to implement the new system is still being devised. However, Winnebago County Sheriff's Sgt. Tammie Stanley, who oversees the department's records system, and Rockford Police Chief Dan O'Shea said each of their respective department's Motorola-supported NET RMS systems will reach "end of life" in 2018.
Gus Gentner, chief information officer for Winnebago County's IT Department, said of the end-of-life designation doesn't mean the systems will die, but said, "You are living on borrowed time.
"The expense of paying the vendor (Motorola ) maintenance fees goes up."
©2017 Rockford Register Star, Ill. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
