textfiles/law/fbijun06.law

June 1990                                 
                                                                  
                RECORDS MANAGEMENT IN THE 1990s               

                               By

                      Daniel L. Arkenau                              
             Lieutenant, Commander of the Records Unit 
                 Cincinnati, Ohio, Police Division
           
                                                                  
     By 1988, the backlog of police records processing at the 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Police Division reached the critical stage.  As 
in many police departments, the Records Unit used logbooks and 3 
x 5 index cards to track accident reports.  This process was slow 
and extremely labor intensive.  With hundreds of new reports and 
retrieval requests coming in each day, the future of record 
keeping looked even bleaker.  In fact, it often took 6 weeks or 
more to fill requests for copies of reports.  At the same time, 
the personnel complement in the unit continued to decrease.       

     To make the situation worse, the Records Unit was coming 
under increasing pressure from insurance companies, city council 
members, and from private citizens to provide this information on 
a timely basis.  At one point, a member of the local claims 
association even came to the office and demanded better service.  

     Faced with this crisis, the division began to examine 
alternative methods of managing files.  Record-keeping personnel 
considered several microfilm-based, computer-assisted retrieval 
systems before selecting the optical disk image retrieval system. 
This system proved to be the solution to a critical problem.      
  
   The division started using the optical disk system in March 
1989.  With this system, police officers now can call the 
accident telephone line at the Records Unit and give the data 
entry operator the accident date, report number, names of 
drivers, locations, district of occurrence, and any injuries or 
fatalities.  The data entry operator then enters this information 
into the optic system.  This information provides a ready index 
of all basic information concerning the auto accident and can be 
retrieved, if needed, to provide a daily count of traffic 
problems in the city.                                             

     When the original report arrives at the Records Unit, the 
data entry operator enters the report number from the original 
report.  The automated, indexed information is then recalled from 
data memory and checked for proper spelling and street locations. 
The operator places the original report on the optic scanner 
which photographs the report.  This image is transmitted to the 
optical disk for permanent storage.  The entire process takes 
approximately 30 seconds.  The original report can then be 
destroyed because the optic image can be used legally as the 
original.                                                

ADVANTAGES OF THE OPTICAL DISK IMAGE SYSTEM                       

     An optical disk image system offers several advantages in 
certain applications over other systems.  With an optical image 
system, a laser beam is used to store electronic images on a 
specially treated metallic disk.  Another laser then ``reads'' 
these bits of stored information and converts them into 
electronic impulses that can be interpreted by a computer. 
Because lasers are extremely precise, far more data can be stored 
on an optical disk than on a floppy disk or on a roll of 
microfilm.  One 12-inch optical disk, for example, holds 2.4 
gigabytes (2.4 million bytes) of information.                     

     An optical disk image system also offers instant recovery of 
all images on file and reduced storage space.  And, it provides 
greater document security than microfilm because no film is sent 
to the lab for processing.                                    

BENEFITS                                                          

     According to the Technical Services Bureau Commander, ``The 
optical system's on-line retrieval capability has transformed the 
Records Unit into an efficient operation that truly serves the 
public.''  Today, all the information that insurance companies 
need to start processing a claim can be taken over the phone. 
When the original claim information arrives, it is scanned onto 
the optical disk.  The image of the report can then be called up 
and printed in seconds.                                           

     By using one or more of the 11 possible program descriptors, 
such as the driver's name and license number, the passenger's 
name, the time and location of the accident or the officer's 
badge number, any report or series of reports can be located and 
displayed in seconds.  Each descriptor can also be modified to 
fit a particular application.  For example, a range search 
function allows the operator to search reports on all accidents 
occurring within a specified range of dates, times, locations or 
other parameters.                                                 

    These broad search capabilities have made it possible for 
one person to accomplish, in a matter of minutes, retrievals that 
previously took three people hours to perform.  The multiple 
search descriptors have also given the Records Unit greater 
flexibility and have made it easier to accommodate extraordinary 
cases, such as accidents involving utility poles or those 
involving numerous passengers.                                    

     In addition, the system has had a phenomenal impact on 
productivity.  After installing the optical system, the Records 
Unit was able to eliminate a backlog of 6,000 reports in 
approximately 4 weeks while keeping up with incoming reports and 
new requests.  This would have been impossible with the old 
system.  As a result, the number of complaints regarding 
turn-around time have decreased to zero.                          

     Integrating the system into the Records Unit's organization 
was relatively painless.  It did not affect operations in any 
way.  In fact, most of the police officers in the field were 
unaware that a new system was even installed.  The system was 
effective almost immediately, and training personnel was 
accomplished with relative ease.                          

CONCLUSION                                                        

     The improvements in the Records Unit have been felt 
throughout the police division.  According to the Technical 
Services Bureau Commander, ``It's made officers in the field 
happy because they can come to the Records Unit and pick up a 
report immediately instead of having to wait around for an hour 
while the clerks try to find it.''                                

     Today, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find anyone 
who is not impressed with the way the Records Unit is now serving 
the department and the community.  Because of this new optical 
disk image retrieval system, efficiency now characterizes the 
Records Unit.