Public Online Reporting (Details)

Name of province/ territory:

Ontario

City/ Region:

Halton

Description of Initiative:

Computer-based system to facilitate the self-reporting of certain incidents by the public without direct police officer involvement.

Initiative Key Objectives:

Reduce the sworn officer resources applied to low-impact incidents that the public are willing to self-report.

Section Responsible for Implementation:

Information Services

Key Contact:

Brian Green
brian.green@haltonpolice.ca

Groups/ Agencies/ Key Partners Involved:

• private agencies/corporations

Level of Involvement (consultative - information sharing) and/or cooperative - direct involvement):

Purchased product (CopLogic).

Amount of Time Initiative has been in Place:

Since 2011.

Reason for Undertaking the Initiative:

A recognition that the public was interested and willing to self-report certain crimes coupled with fiscal pressures on our resources.

Resources Required to Implement this Initiative:

Eight months to implement, approximately $10,000 in hardware and software costs and staffing from three bureaus that were involved with implementation and testing. We have a maintenance agreement with the company, which affords us support.

There are a number of staff associated with our online reporting. There is a project manager in IT, as well as a subject-matter expert from the Records Bureau who work on it as needed, part-time, in addition to their other duties. This year, approximately 25% of two staff members’ time was devoted to developing the online reporting interface into our records management system, which will be used by police services across Canada. For 2012 this represents approximately $40,000 in staff costs for the development. For 2013 these costs will be minimal.

Method of Implementation:

Phased in.

Key Outcomes of the Initiative:

We currently have limited uptake by the public (223 in 2011), but this still results in less sworn staff response being required. In the first half of 2013 we plan on going live with more in-depth and comprehensive online reporting. To date we have not conducted a study, however, intuitively we feel it saves patrol officer time.

Availability of a Communication Strategy:

Yes

Key Messages used to Publicize the Initiative:

N/A

Forms of Evaluation by which the Initiative will be Assessed:

• internal

Evaluation Completed or Community Feedback Received:

No

Summary of the Outcomes:

N/A

Summary of the Performance Measure Data Collected:

N/A

Economics of Policing Pillars:

• Efficiencies within Police Services
• New Models of Community Safety

Further Details:

N/A

Additional Comments or Suggestions:

N/A

Record Entry Date:

2013-08-01