Case Study | Dartmouth Police Department, Massachusetts
Cross Agency: Real Time Information Sharing
Key Benefits
- Share crime fighting data with real-time access to master name and case report information
- Ensure data integrity and accuracy with read-only access to neighboring agencies
- Improved officer safety with more information available to officers when conducting name checks
- Extend your jurisdiction to help solve crime and enhance officer safety
Vital Statistics
- Sworn Officers - 64
- Area Served - 64 square miles
- Population - 35,000
- Call Volume - 28,000 (Annual)
- Go Live - July 1994
Cross Agency Participating Agencies:
- Dartmouth
- Acushnet
- Carver
- East Bridgewater
- Fairhaven
- Freetown
- Halifax
- Marion
- Mattapoisett
- Rehoboth
- Rochester
- Seekonk
- Swansea
- Wareham
- Westport
- Fall River
- Somerset
- Bridgewater
- Plympton
- West Bridgewater
- Brockton Berkley
- Scituate
- Dighton
- North Dighton
Overview
Interoperability and data sharing are crucial to law enforcement operations, so that information can be shared to prevent and solve crime. Traditionally, agencies could not exchange information because their records management systems (RMS) functioned largely in isolation due to disparate hardware and software. Imc bridges the information gap between the different agencies with the Cross Agency solution.
IMC boasts a large client base with many clients in neighboring cities and counties. To take advantage of their clients’ close proximity and similar Imc operating platform, Imc developed Cross Agency so that neighboring local law enforcement agencies can share crime fighting data and case reports. With Cross Agency, users receive real‐time access to master name and case report information from other Imc departments in their Cross Agency network.
Chief Mark Pacheco of the Dartmouth Police Department could be considered the pioneer of Cross Agency. With the emphasis on data sharing since 9/11, Chief Pacheco and other Massachusetts users within the Imc family began developing ideas on how to link their similar Imc records systems. Discussions with Imc management, programmers, and other users ensued, and development for Cross Agency software was born.
Chief Pacheco approached the regionally established Southeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (SEMLEC) consisting of 13 neighboring Imc Police clients who share law enforcement resources during catastrophic or major events. After Pacheco pitched the concept and idea to the Council Members and with the Council’s approval, Chief Pacheco wrote, applied and was awarded a regional grant through the Department of Homeland Security.
In 2006, Dartmouth PD and the initial 13 neighboring police departments including the City of Fall River were the first to go online within Massachusetts with Imc Cross Agency with Dartmouth Police serving as the server hub of the network.
Cross Agency operates under a hub and spoke model network of Imc departments utilizing either the state network or a local virtual private network (VPN) to connect and share information. A secure IP connection is set up between each spoke department. Each department needs to be able to communicate with the hub and vice versa, but each department doesn’t need to communicate with each other.
““We would definitely recommend that fellow Imc agencies form regional networks and implement Cross Agency. The more information that we can provide to our police officers the better our departments become at solving crimes, protecting the community and enhancing officer safety.””.- Mark Pacheco, Chief of Police, Dartmouth Police Department, Massachusetts
“”
Each of the Departments within the Cross Agency Network signs a memorandum of understanding to share your Department’s Master Name Information and case reports. The access is provided on a read‐only basis, so the integrity and accuracy of your Department’s records is adhered. Through security settings, each department has the ability to limit what is shared and viewed, such as sensitive Internal Affairs cases or Juvenile cases..
Chief Pacheco states, “For your officers on the road to take full advantage of the immediate “Real Time” capabilities of Cross Agency, there comes the understanding that all records should be shared between agencies. If, however, your agency chooses to not share specific details within the records, they can choose to list ‘Please contact the Department directly for details and information’ within the searched person or report..
Chief Pacheco continues, “As soon as we went online, we began to receive the benefits from Cross Agency. One of our officers had stopped a suspect in his vehicle in Dartmouth. The officer did a Master Names check using Cross Agency and found that the identified suspect fled the scene of a domestic incident from a neighboring town. The Dartmouth officer immediately contacted the other Police Department and informed them that he had their suspect. An immediate arrest was made thanks to using Cross Agency.” .
In addition to solving crimes and apprehending criminals, Imc Cross Agency is extremely paramount to officer safety. Chief Pacheco says, “When an officer is conducting a simple traffic stop, he will still do a plate check and name check. Through Cross Agency name check, if the officer sees previous offenses, such as firearms possession, violence or warrants, the officer can radio for back up and approach with caution. This information would sometimes only be available within a department’s records system, so to have access to that information through Cross Agency and Imc Mobile greatly enhances officer’s safety.”.
Continues Pacheco, “We are extremely pleased with how Cross Agency is working to serve the Dartmouth Police Department. We would definitely recommend that fellow Imc agencies form regional networks and implement Imc Cross Agency. The more information that we can provide to our police officers the better our departments become at solving crimes, protecting the community and enhancing officer safety.”.
Dartmouth Police’s Imc Cross Agency network has grown to include 25 neighboring police departments. The next step for the pioneers is to implement regional servers to set up county‐wide Imc Cross Agency networks. With regional servers, each county would have a regional server to input their data and utilize Cross Agency to link the regional servers. For instance, Dartmouth would be part of the Bristol County regional server which could bridge to Plymouth County regional server and so on. This concept, still subject to development and approval by IMC and the State Criminal History Board network, would widen the bandwidth and scope of Cross Agency to a state wide level for Massachusetts.
Over 150 clients are currently using Imc Cross Agency with much success. Massachusetts clients have developed regional consortiums among their neighboring police departments. Other clients, such as those in the states of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island, have implemented a statewide Cross Agency solution increasing their jurisdiction. Imc’s Cross Agency is the solution to assist local police departments extend their jurisdiction to help solve crime and enhance officer safety.
