John Kitsmiller, an area business manager with Smart Public Safety Software, explains the advantages of using one computer system for all local law enforcmement agencies during a Howard County commissioner's meeting Tuesday morning in the county judge's courtroom. (HERALD Photo/Thomas Jenkins)
John Kitsmiller, area business manager for public safety software company Smart, explained the ins and outs of the computer system during a meeting with county commissioners, as the court begins moving forward with the outfitting of the new 112-bed county jail facility currently under construction.
According to Kitsmiller, the system would allow several local agencies — including the Howard County Sheriff's Office, Big Spring Police Department and 118th District Court, just to name a few — to share information and cut down on the redundant data in different computer systems.
“I'll give you an example. I live in Taylor, which has a population of about 15,000,” said Kitsmiller. “Driving through Taylor, let's say I get stopped for speeding by a sheriff's deputy and i talk my way out of it. They let me go, and a couple of miles up the road, I get pulled over by the police department. That police officer has no idea I just talked my way out of a ticket because the two agencies don't share information. I might be able to talk my way out of it again. However, if that police officer knew I had just been pulled over for the same thing, that changes the face of everything.
“Your law enforcement agents want to be out on the streets doing their job, not standing around doing nothing while they wait for someone they've arrested to be booked. With this software, most of the booking information would already be in the system when they got there, and that helps speed things up. It does the same thing for the jail and the courts, so they don't have to keep entering the same data over and over.”
Kitsmiller, along with other representatives from Smart Software, went over the different aspects of the programs with officials, and according to County Judge Mark Barr, helped begin discussions between the city and county over possible implementation of the software among local law enforcement agencies.
“We're trying to take that first step to get the city and county looking at what we're trying to do here,” said Barr. “We're trying to make this a staff-friendly jail, and by that I mean you make it easier for the jailers and can cut some staff and not have such a staff intensive project out there.
“As far as the money is concerned, as far as we know right now — unless we get so elaborate with it that it's outside (our range) — it fits nicely with our jail budget right now. We'll have to take a long hard look at that once we get all of these components together. It may not be Smart Software, it might be a different company. We really don't know yet. However, we've looked at some (of the software companies), and they are the leaders and we like this (software) the best so far. We'll probably pull some others in and look at them as well. We're going to do more research on it.”
BSPD Chief Lonnie Smith said the presentation was informative, adding the police department is always looking for ways to improve its service to local citizens.
“It was an enlightening presentation. We're always looking to improve the information system we have here so we can share more information,” said Smith. “That's one way we can provide the community with better service. So we were interested and glad we got invited over today.”
Smith said the city is far from ready to make a decision whether to participate in the program, however.
“This is the first meeting we've had and the first we've heard of this software system the county is looking at,” said Smith. “So it's still very early in the process.”
Barr echoed the same concerns, but said its important to begin looking at the matter as early as possible.
“The next step is for the city and county, the commissioners and I to sit back and digest this information and see where we want to go,” said Barr. “I know some of the commissioners are concerned that we may be moving a little too fast on the software, but I feel like we need to start looking at things like this and get our mind wrapped around this idea.”
Project architect Jeff Heffelfinger urged the court to begin discussing the matter in hopes of being able to implement the software several months before the jail is completed.
“If we can begin working with this software in December, by the time March rolls around and the jail is completed, the county's people will have a pretty good grasp of the system,” said Heffelfinger.
Barr said is he hesitant to put the software project on any sort of fast track for fear of overloading an already heavily taxed staff.
“I want to research that a little bit more,” said Barr. “The commissioners and I, we have to sit down and really start talking about this kind of stuff and get their thoughts and ideas. I'm having a little bit of a problem with this. If we get things done in time, it could be a good idea. Or are we dumping too much on these people at one time with a new jail, new sheriff and everything else? We may be just making a whole lot of confusion there. I want to think this thing through a little bit more.”
Also during Tuesday's meeting, commissioners unanimously approved a change-order for the jail construction, adding a building to the facility to house maintenance equipment and provide secure investigative areas. The building's price tag — a hefty $279,996 — will come out of the project's contingency fund, which is approximately $650,000.
The jail project was approved by voters to the tune of $11.57 million.
Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at
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