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PROJECT M.O.R.E.
MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCES EFFICIENTLY
SUBMITTED BY
NORTH CHARLESTON POLICE DEPARTMENT
Statement of Condition/Problem:
Prepared by: North Charleston Police Department
Historically, law enforcement agencies have not recognized or
prioritized the importance of records management. However, many recent
high profile prosecutions throughout the nation have directed attention to
this critically important function. Recognizing the importance of records
management accountability, Project M.O.R.E. was designed to accomplish
the goals and objectives of the Police Department, by integrating state of the
art technology with the philosophy of the current administration to reorder
priorities to accomplish modem management practices for organizing
storage, and retrieval of important Police Department documents. With this
in mind, a 1995-96 in-house work-study was conducted in the Records
Repository for the North Charleston Police Department. The study revealed
a minimally functional, highly disorganized, workplace overwhelmed with
mounts of paperwork stacked two and three feet high on desks, in file
cabinets, on shelves, in boxed, in piles on the floor, and in off-site storage
facilities. Excessive clutter, disorganization, poor work habits, poor
management practices, and neglect from previous years created a
management challenge. An excess of more than one hundred thousand
incident and accident reports, thousands of booking reports, more than five
thousand criminal history dispositions and several thousand traffic tickets
created a minimally accessible document backlog demanding immediate
attention.
With the innovative technology of OTG's Application Extender
Software, Canon DR-3020 scanner and the aid of Palmetto Microfilm and
Imaging Systems, a local systems integration company, the North Charleston
Police Department, in August of 1997, implemented Project M.O.R.E., a
proactive effort to effect change that would create a more secure, more
manageable, cost effective, productive, and efficient work environment for
the management, storage, and retrieval of important Police Department
Records.
The efficiency and impressive results of the Project M.O.R.E. have
prompted North Charleston City Council to expand the use of this product to
three additional paper intensive branches of city government in an effort to
increase efficiency, productivity, organization, and responsiveness to city
government needs and to the public. The system now consists of 15
concurrent users of Application Extender, 4 Canon DR-3020 Scanner, and 2
Plasmon Jukeboxes.
Prior to implementing the use of the Application Extender, technicians
were able to data enter 3 or 4 reports per shift, (less than 10% of reports
received per shift) into the Department's Gateway Record Management
System. This data entry process was done in conjunction with other
departmental duties of the technicians. The speed and efficiency of the
system has enabled a single technician to be able to process all incident,
accident, booking reports, and traffic tickets received on a shift on a daily
basis, and make them available to the public, to government, and to police
officers within an hour or two.
From August of 1997, to March 1998, all incident, accident, and
booking reports received into the Repository have been entered into the
Application Extender, to include two months of backlog. This totals 175,000
(plus) pieces of paper. In addition, 4,564 (plus) traffic tickets have been
entered into the system.
Today the North Charleston Police Department is efficiently
managing and processing all record management responsibilities daily. All
work is accomplished at the close of each shift. Application Extender will
substantially increase productivity; provide for more efficient utilization of
manpower and resources; reduce stress and bum-out of employees;
significantly decrease cost expenditures for storage space and equipment;
decrease response time for complying with request for research or retrieval
of documents; and enhance the safety of police officers and the community.
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