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City Events

2006

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Annual Dickinson Holiday Parade

The Annual Dickinson Holiday Parade was held on Thursday, December 14, 2006 at 7:00 p.m.  The parade was sponsored by the Dickinson Rotary Club. The theme was "Holiday Heroes" and several of our military heroes were honored as they rode in stylish convertible down the parade route..  There were several well decorated floats, horses, and fire trucks. The Dickinson High School Band, Diamonds Drill Team, Cheerleaders, and the ROTC all marched in the parade.   The Dickinson Volunteer Fire Department gave a ride to Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and one of the Elves.

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Police Department Goes "Live" with new software

In July the police department went "Live" with the Computer Aided Dispatching software from OSSI.  Through the hard work of Captain Melvin Mason, the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, and the Galveston County Information Technology Department we were able to implement the new CAD system two months ahead of schedule. 

Dispatchers are now able to more efficiently track officers in the field.  The built in mapping systems allows them to visually see the locations of calls that officers are assigned to.  Dispatchers are alerted to calls at "hot spots" where potential officer hazards and wanted suspects are located.

In September we began training all the officers and civilian staff in the records management and jail management systems.  The records management system will streamline the reporting of the Uniform Crime Report to the state.  It will also enable Record Manager Terri Rogers to more readily obtain crime statistics for a given area. 

The Criminal Investigation Division will be able to utilize the case management system to track the status of follow-up investigations and to help develop investigative leads. Detective are looking forward to the availability of additional information from the files of the Sheriff's Office.  Since all arrest for class B misdemeanors and above are booked through the county jail we will now have access to information and photographs on suspects handled by different agencies in the county.  This will be a big time saver in tracking suspects and creating photo line-ups.

The patrol officer also received training in mobile reporting.  This system will allow them to complete their reports in the field, thus spending more time on active patrol.  The officers can complete their reports and submit them to a supervisor without ever entering the police station.   Officers will also be alerted to wanted suspects and be able to view their photographs right from their car.

The jail management system will allow for the complete tracking of all prisoners booked into the city jail.  A new mug shot system allows for immediate access to prisoner mug shots.

The records management and jail management systems went live on October 3rd.  As part of this process, all the locally held criminal warrants were entered into the new system.  This is a big plus to our department, because every prisoner booked into the county jail will be automatically checked for Dickinson warrants.  Previously an agency would have had to call our department to check our warrants.  During the entry process we were successful in locating one suspect who had been arrested by another agency and was still in the county jail  Under the old system this suspect would have bonded out without our knowing that he had been arrested.

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City purchases new public safety software

          Recently, the City Council of the City Dickinson approved purchasing a new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management System (RMS) software for the Police Department to replace the current outdated systems. The public safety software was purchased from SunGard HTE’s Open Software Solutions (OSSI) division in the amount of $178,738. Also approved in the purchase are 7 laptop computers and associated hardware priced at $32,734 to be purchased from Affordable Computer Systems. A project contingency of $10,600 (5%) was added bringing the grand project total to $222,072.

Dickinson Police Department will operate under a “jurisdictional” software license agreement with the Galveston County Sheriff’s Department. The PD staff made every effort to take advantage of cost-savings measures as they became available during the search for this software. Two factors came in to play that contributed to the decision to recommend purchasing this software. The first was licensing fees and second was connectivity. Partnering with the Sheriff’s Department provided a substantially lower price on the software. Partnering with the Galveston County Emergency Communications District to connect to the County’s server provided for a savings of half the cost. The existing 911 fiber circuit provided by Time Warner Cable is an existing link between Dickinson Police Department and the Galveston County EOC center.

          The new software has many benefits that provide the citizens of Dickinson with quick efficient service. Those benefits include: information sharing, Mobile Field Reporting, wireless and paperless dispatching, Jail Management, and interoperability with neighboring law enforcement agencies.

           Information sharing between agencies is a huge benefit in case solving. Officers will be able search the County’s database for information relative to warrants, jail records, and other information that will is mutually agreed upon to share.

Mobile Field Reporting will be available to the uniformed patrol officers to do their reports on laptop computers in their patrol vehicles or other field environment. Officers will be able to transmit these reports in real time via wireless broadband air cards to the file server for processing by the Records department. This will keep the officers visible in the field instead of in the office writing reports. Mobile Field Reporting also allows Dickinson officers to communicate with the sheriff’s department deputies via laptop PC’s.

 The dispatchers can utilize the CAD system to send calls to officers in real-time “silent” dispatch mode to increase officer safety for calls that require high security, i.e. bomb threats, terrorist activity, etc.

The system also features a Jail Management module. The jail module allows the Jailers to book prisoners into the City Jail. In addition to booking, the jail module provides medical information, property information, mug shots, arrest information, and other pertinent information relative to prisoners housed at the City Jail.

 The system will also allow for interoperability with other law enforcement agencies that use the OSSI software locally, regionally, and nationally. Agencies abroad can also view information that Dickinson puts in the system, provided that it is shared.

          The infrastructure of the system (file servers and related hardware) is owned and operated by Galveston County and operated by the Sheriff’s Department and the Information Technology (IT) department. Dickinson will receive software support for the system through the sheriff’s department, IT Department, and SunGard HTE.

          The go-live date for CAD is slated for September 2006. The RMS module and wireless reporting packages will be brought online thereafter (December 2006).  The project could go online faster than the projected date because a lot of the geobase information is already in place.

          The aforementioned benefits are just some of the many features that the new system offers. The powerful new law enforcement software system will provide the citizens of Dickinson many years of reliable and effective service. The new software project is being managed by Administrative Captain Melvin Mason. If you have questions or comments, Captain Mason can be reached at 281-337-6301 or email: mmason@dickinson-tx.gov. You may also visit the OSSI web page at www.ossiusa.com.

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