According to Police Chief Dale Dwojakowski, Sterling Heights is the first law enforcement community in Macomb County to provide such information to the public. He said the dashboard is in line with the city's overall pledge to be as transparent as possible.
"Our fundamental philosophy is that transparency is vital to building and maintaining a strong partnership with our community," Dwojakowski said in a statement Thursday.
"And we know from experience that maintaining our rank as the safest big city in Michigan is all about the collaborative effort between our officers and our residents and businesses. This dashboard will simply continue to enhance the bond of trust between our community and our department."
Plano, Texas-based Tyler Technologies, which specializes in developing software for the public sector.
The dashboard is accessible under the left-hand side of the police department section of the city's website at sterling-heights.net.
It allows viewers to quickly check out up-to-date informaion regarding the department's interaction with the community on items such as calls for service, citations issued and complaints. The information is broken down by race, sex and time frames.
The dashboard will also assist Sterling Heights police officers by allowing them to internally track issues and resident concerns as well as streamline department processes such as use of force forms, chase reports, injured officers and more.
The database that feeds the dashboard has allowed these forms and reports to become digital and has allowed for a work flow to be created for each, rendering the processes completely paperless.
"Dashboard information is refreshed every five minutes, giving visitors the most up-to-date information possible," the chief said. "As we see how this program develops, the plan is to add even more categories and information, making our department as open and accessible to the public as we can be."
To create room for the transparency dashboard, the police department was able to remove software modules they weren't currently using. so there is no increased cost to taxpayers, officials added.
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