Polk County has agreed to partner with both the Kittson County and Marshall County Sheriff’s Office with the Zuercher software currently used by Polk County. The sheriff’s office began using the software about 18 months ago and both Kittson and Marshall are currently looking to add the same software to their operations for both deputies and dispatchers. By partnering with Polk County, Kittson will save nearly $62,000 and Marshall will save around $91,000 compared with if they were to put in their own stand-alone software servers. Polk County will not have any additional costs by partnering with the two agencies.
Polk County Sheriff Jim Tadman says pooling resources with other region law enforcement agencies is important to save money as none of the departments are flush with money. “With the Region 1 Sheriff’s we’ve been looking at other ways we can share services for our counties and not have all the burden just on one county for cost,” said Tadman. “Just recently we went to this new system for our reporting writing and CAD writing. Now Kittson and Marshall County are interested in going with the same system that we have and wanted to know if they were able to onboard with our server. We have to save money where we can. Our county sheriff’s office isn’t flush with money and the same with theirs as a smaller agency having fewer funds. Again, if we can assist any other agencies around ours at any time we surely will.”
Polk County currently shares their system with both the Crookston and East Grand Forks Police Departments and Tadman says he is aware of a 13-county partnership in Northeast Minnesota. “We share that with the Crookston and East Grand Forks Police Departments and this would just be a couple of more agencies coming onto our server system,” said Tadman. “We’re aware up in the Carlton and Pine County area that they have, I think, 13 counties sharing the system up there. Which is a big money saver for everybody because you don’t have these individual servers which cost a lot to bring in.”
By partnering each agency is still responsible for their own information and reports under the Data Practices Laws but the agencies will be able to share names and histories easier. Tadman explains that a deputy will be able to look up the information in the server during the course of their investigation saving time and manpower. Currently, if a deputy believes someone they are investigating is from Kittson or Marshall County they will either contact that county or ask a dispatcher to contact that county and someone from the county they are requesting information from must look it up and relay that back. The ability of a deputy to have access to that information in their car will save both time, and limit taking others away from other duties. “If we’re doing an investigation, such as a burglary investigation and we believe that our suspects or maybe come out of the Kittson County area or travel to that area our officers can look up that information without having to go through dispatch or even contact that department,” said Tadman. “[Currently] we contact that office and say – hey, what do you have on this individual? – they look it up which ties up another individual. Now we can do it all in house. We can open up our reports to the agencies that are around us. Any of that information is read-only, it’s the shared name index and is going to help out everybody in this area. Because, you know, sorry to say but criminals bounce back and forth and Polk County lines don’t hinder people from going on to other counties.”
The Sheriff’s Office is also looking at trading an old boat motor that was recently upgraded through a grant for a trailer to haul their Polaris and Rescue Boggan. “We were very happy to receive a federal boat grant which gave us a chance to pick up a new motor for our 2006 boat that we have,” said Tadman. “We’ll be able to use the [old motor] to trade for a trailer for our side-by-side. We’re thankful to the Highway Department because we’ve been using theirs for a while but I’ve been informed it’s mowing season and they need to get back to work. Looking again trying to save our resources and having something where we can trade or sell something we have to get rid of to get something we need instead of put extra money out.”
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