The village, home to just over 7,500 residents, adopted Mark43’s cloud-based Records Management System (RMS) at the beginning of June. The system enables officers to document everything from arrests to minor incidents directly from the field or their vehicles — eliminating the need to return to headquarters. For a tourism-driven community like Ruidoso, where police presence on the streets is especially important, that shift means officers can spend more time serving the public and less time stuck behind a desk.
“Sometimes officers would need to wait three to four minutes just to get the previous RMS system to respond, which led to a lot of frustration,” Ruidoso Police Chief Steven Minner said. “Mark43 offers a faster, more user-friendly experience, which will make their jobs a lot smoother.”
Mark43 is a cloud-native public safety platform that provides records management, dispatch and data insight tools. Built on AWS GovCloud, and integrating two AI tools that simplify police report creation and summarize case files for faster review, the system lets agencies keep operating even during disasters or outages.
“All you need is the Internet and a device to make it work,” Matt Polega, Mark43 president and co-founder, said.
Its RMS and computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems are integrated, allowing officer responses, incident histories and documentation to be connected within a single platform. Previously, managing reports looked a lot different for the department, which impacted the speed of case resolutions. In Ruidoso’s previous system, its CAD and RMS operated totally independently, which limited visibility and collaboration between dispatch and responding officers.
“If officers couldn’t complete their reports, they would spend several hours the next day back at HQ, which means they’re not out on the streets serving the community,” Minner said. “Now, with Mark43 First Responder, our officers will have access to dispatch information in real time, in the field, which will improve communication between dispatch and patrol immensely.”
The RMS has, Polega said, reduced offense reporting times up to 80 percent on average, and arrest reporting times by 50 percent.
Moving operations to the cloud also means the department no longer has to shoulder the burden of maintaining outdated systems. Outsourcing system upkeep to Mark43, the police chief said, allows the team to spend less time managing tech and more time focused on public safety.
An added benefit of using Mark43, according to Minner, is that neighboring departments share the same platform.
“That will allow us to better communicate and share intelligence,” he said. “So, if Albuquerque has someone listed as a dangerous person, we’ll be able to pull that report up and be more prepared heading into a call.”
Albuquerque Deputy Chief of Police J.J. Griego emphasized how valuable it is for agencies to stay in sync, to avoid working in silos.
“We respect jurisdictions, but criminals don't,” Griego said. “We have to make sure that we are not doubling our efforts or conflicting with other agencies to work in the most efficient way possible.”
Albuquerque Police Department has been using Mark43’s RMS since 2021, and Griego said the transition to the platform was one of its most successful IT implementations to date. The department uses Mark43’s RMS, specifically, to provide crime stats for public-facing dashboards and internal briefings. According to Mark43, Rio Rancho Police Department and the New Mexico State Police have already implemented various components of its system.
The company’s platform has, Polega said, evolved beyond just acting as a “force multiplier” for police agencies, to increasingly integrate artificial intelligence, simplifying other workflows as well.
The system, Polega said, currently integrates two key AI components: Report AI and Brief AI. Report AI accelerates the report-writing process by generating initial drafts using data from various sources, while Brief AI condenses complex case files into digestible summaries for detectives.
Although AI has become an integral component of the Mark43 system, Polega emphasized that its use does not come at the expense of accuracy or accountability.
“While there are a lot of great opportunities and a lot of great places in the Mark43 platform where AI is being used and leveraged, nothing will ever make its way out of the application, to court, to an attorney, or anywhere else without a human seeing it and actually verifying that everything in there is legitimate and is correct,” he said.
The company’s AI-powered tools collect valuable data for police departments, and its Insights tool helps organize and interpret it, he said, enabling departments to make smarter decisions and improve daily operations.
“Police departments can have anywhere from 10 to 1,000 data sources, which can quickly become overwhelming,” Polega said. “Our goal is to highlight the most critical and timely information so chiefs can make informed decisions about where to deploy patrol units, and officers know exactly what to expect, ultimately leading to better outcomes for both the officers and the communities they serve.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify information on reductions to offense and arrest reporting times.
