Marion, Hiawatha police investing in new records management system

The Marion and Hiawatha police departments will be spending more than $1 million over the next few years on a new records management system.

The two departments together paid Tyler Technologies $300,000 in Fiscal Year 2022 to start developing the system. They’ll pay $381,000 in Fiscal Year 2023, and then $81,000 for the following three years, for a total cost of $924,000.

There also will be an additional yearly cost starting in 2023 of approximately $70,000 to maintain the servers that house the system.

Marion Police Chief Mike Kitsmiller said the new system, which is scheduled to go live in February 2023, will help the department stay more organized when it comes to storing case documents and retrieving data.

“The system we have now is outdated and wasn’t built for a department our size,” Kitsmiller said. “It limits our ability to be transparent with the community regarding our statistics and does not allow for real time analysis.”

Marion currently uses separate systems for records management, computer-aided dispatch and evidence tracking, costing approximately $30,000 per year. Tyler Technologies will combine all of those systems into one and add a case management system.

The new system also will provide the ability to audit cases or incidents automatically to make sure all mandatory tasks are completed, allow officers to autofill reports and allow dispatchers to drag information into a call screen for officers.

Other benefits include built-in analytical capabilities and a function that can search through documents using various factors. Kitsmiller said Marion’s current system can only search basic factors, like names, addresses, business names or report numbers.

“The search capabilities will be available and accessible to all department personnel and will allow commanders to make informed decisions regarding the allocation of resources. The analysis component will help us prevent, predict, and reduce crimes and improve response times,” Kitsmiller said.

Hiawatha Police Chief Dennis Marks also noted the system makes it easy for police departments to share information with other law enforcement agencies that use Tyler Technologies.

Marion is going to store the servers for the system and cover most of the costs because Hiawatha is only paying for a portion of the records management system, and not the computer-aided dispatch. Of the total cost, Hiawatha is paying $40,000 in Fiscal Year 2022, and $8,000 in Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024. The annual costs to Hiawatha will be renegotiated in Fiscal Year 2025.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com