Goodhue County Continually Impressed With CIS Software Solutions Since 1993
Goodhue County is home to approximately 46,500 residents and is nestled on the Mississippi River almost 55 miles southeast of Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a county that has six communities and the county seat is Red Wing where the Red Wing Shoes company is headquartered. All six communities in the county share a public safety software solution from Computer Information Systems, Inc. (CIS). The participating agencies are Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office, Red Wing Police Department, Red Wing Fire/Ambulance, Cannon Falls Police Department, Cannon Falls Fire Department, Cannon Falls Ambulance, Goodhue Police Department, Goodhue Fire Department, Kenyon Police Department, Kenyon Fire Department, Prairie Island Police Department, Zumbrota Police Department, Zumbrota Fire Department and Zumbrota Ambulance. The CIS Systems provide interoperability with shared records between agencies resulting in an increased level of public safety countywide. The systems being used include CAD, RMS, JMS, Civil Process, Mobile with AVL, Mobile Field Reporting, Electronic Citations and E-Charging complaints.
Wayne Betcher, Goodhue County’s Dispatch Supervisor and System Manager relates some of his favorite features of the CIS CAD System.
“We use the map data supplied by our GIS department which allows us to keep all of our map data current in CIS. The integration is seamless and we use multiple local layers such as municipal boundaries, mile markers, railroad crossings, snowmobile trails, fire hydrants, parcel data and ESN data as well as surrounding county streets and address points. All of this data is geocoded in the CAD System making it easy to get pertinent data back out again through CIS reporting software. Premise information and prior calls are available as soon as a valid geocoded address is entered in CAD.“
The CIS CAD Map will display all caller locations regardless if there is a traditional address.
“The CIS CAD Mapping has assisted dispatch in locating callers who didn’t know where they were in emergency situations,” Wayne added.
“The CIS Mobile System provides officers with the same information available in their squads that dispatch and Records has. Premise file alerts which keep track of addresses that we know are not LE friendly provides an immediate automatic notification to the officer. Likewise, we can add medical or lifeline information to this same file and get similar notifications to the officers in the field,” according to Wayne.
“Reports are generated by using Crystal Reports software. CIS staff will assist or if you have someone in your agency that knows Crystal, you can create your own reports. Any data field that is entered in CIS can be retrieved through a report,”
“We have been able to identify individuals by their scars, marks, tattoos (SMTs) that were giving officers false information. We have been able to identify burned out vehicles by a partial vehicle identification number search.”
CIS strives for impeccable customer support satisfaction. Wayne explains,
“If we need support they are only a phone call away. Recently, I had a records staff accidentally delete a record in RMS. I contacted CIS and they were able to restore that record in a very short time period.”
Wayne summarizes the benefits of the Systems saying,
“We are able to quickly research suspects, vehicles and events then forward that information to the officer. We can easily generate reports or retrieve information from a report or query. As a dispatcher and a supervisor, CIS is our life line for keeping our officers safe.”
