Sheriffs’ Deputies in Yucaipa, CA Pilot the Presynct Report Network Paperless Field Based Incident Reporting

Pilot program demonstrates Sheriffs’ deputies save an extra 10 minutes per incident report which could mean a savings of 9,374 hours per year with Presynct Report Network

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The San Bernardino County Sheriffs’ Office is piloting the Presynct Report Network field based incident reporting software at Yucaipa Station, as reported 11/27/2008 in the San Bernardino Sun (www.sbsun.com/ci_11091238), to ensure that it performs as it should and meets the needs of the Sheriffs’ Office. Deputies in Yucaipa Station have already saved significant patrol hours since the Presynct Report Network was installed. The Sheriffs’ Office is hoping to obtain grant funds to purchase Presynct for County-wide implementation. The pilot was recently extended to include a second of the county’s 24 patrol stations. The Sun reported that a study of the Presynct Report Network paperless incident reporting software shows that Yucaipa Station is saving an extra 10 minutes or so per report. The study also shows that the Presynct Report Network could save more than 9,374 hours each year if all Sheriffs’ patrol deputies were using Presynct instead of returning to the station or handwriting incident reports.

“That extra 9,374 hours is the equivalent of another 4.5 full-time patrol officers in the field and translates to a substantial dollar savings every year,” said Tim Pakes, Vice President of Sales for Presynct Technologies. “The most recent survey of Sheriffs’ Offices conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that the 2003 base starting salary for entry-level deputies ranged from $23,300 to $38,800,” added Pakes, “and that would mean a savings of between $104,850 and $174,600 every year for those extra 9,374 hours just based on 2003 entry-level salaries!”

The Presynct Report Network is a flagship product of Presynct Technologies. Inc. Presynct is the only incident reporting software that is forms-based at the data entry level and can integrate with proprietary records management systems. When the incident reporting process is automated with Presynct Report Network, users see on the computer screen a duplicate of the paper-based form they’ve been using all along. As a result, user acceptance of the automated incident reporting process is quick and easy, and user training on the automated system is minimal. Essentially, report writers trade pen and paper incident form for a keyboard and computer screen. The agency’s native forms are automated then utilized from report creation all the way through distribution and archiving. Officers and Supervisors fill out reports using either a mobile client or their current local area network. Built within the Presynct Report Network is a complete approval-rejection tracking process. Finalized incident reports can be shared with others using the built-in paperless report distribution process for additional cost savings. Information contained in the forms is stored in a SQL database for later retrieval and analysis.

The Sun staff writer can be reached at stacia.glenn@inlandnewspapers.com

About Presynct Technologies, Inc.
Presynct Technologies, Inc. entered the public safety market with 15 years of experience in the healthcare market. The Presynct Report Network is the only law enforcement forms based incident reporting system that offers two versions of their application—the on-site version for purchase and the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, visit www.presynct.com or call 1-866-PRESYNCT.

UPDATE: Missing, possibly destroyed, documents lead to repeal of San Bernardino Mountain projects

By Lauren McSherry on December 9, 2008 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After a mere seven days in office, Neil Derry boldly beseeched his colleagues Tuesday morning to rescind millions of dollars in projects initiated during his predecessor's last days in office.

The problem? All the documents pertaining to those projects have gone missing.
"When I took office just over a week ago the files on the fifth floor were empty," Derry told the board.

To prove the point, Derry held up a binder that was supposed to contain plans for the Moonridge Zoo relocation project. It was empty.

Whether the files were destroyed by outgoing Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, who held the position for 20 years, remains unconfirmed. Calls to Hansberger's cell phone were not returned.

Destroying the public records stored on the fifth floor of the county government center, where the supervisors' offices are located, does not appear to have been illegal.

"We do not have any policy that addresses the retention or destruction of documents," said David Wert, county spokesman.

After the meeting, Derry said by telephone that he was not accusing anyone of a crime.

A transitional team had been formed to help smooth over the transfer of the 3rd district seat from Hansberger to Derry.

That team, which was hired to assist Derry at the end of the summer, was housed on the second floor of the government center, and staffers would have had no way of knowing what was occurring on the fifth floor regarding the documents, Derry said.

"We were being very careful not to intrude on Dennis Hansberger's territory," he said. "He was the supervisor and deserved the respect of that office."

Shortly before leaving office, Hansberger submitted a number of costly projects before the board for approval. Derry said the cost of the projects, which were all unanimously approved, constituted 80-90 percent of 3rd district money outside of his staff budget.

"There was a concerted effort to spend all 3rd district discretionary funds money as quickly as they could, so that it would not be there when I arrived in office," he said.

Derry said he was concerned about the funding sources of some of the programs which caused him to ask the board to rescind the funding. For example, the nearly $1 million committed to the Arrowhead Manor Water Company to repay a state loan should have come out of redevelopment agency money that had been set aside for Cedar Glen, Derry said.

In total, the money for seven projects was rescinded Tuesday. Among them was $500,000 for a traffic signal in Fawnskin for which no traffic study had been conducted. Another was $250,000 for landscape improvements at the Mentone Senior Center and Library. A $500,000 allocation for the Mountain Preservation Program in the San Bernardino Mountains was also repealed. Representatives from two local environmental groups that manage land in the mountains had said previously they were entirely unaware a program to merge sub-substandard lots had been in the works.

Derry expects that most of the projects will receive funding in the near future, but from different, more appropriate, sources.

Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said during Tuesday's meeting that he encountered a similar situation when he ascended to his post.

"Starting from nothing when there are no files is no fun," Mitzelfelt said.

He suggested the board institute a policy to prevent the destruction of documents.

Tags:

• Board of Supervisors,
• Dennis Hansberger,
• neil derry,
• San Bernardino County

Book about SBCSD - But he who writes last...

San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department

by Desoucy, M David, and Penrod, Sheriff Gary (Foreword by)

The largest county in the continental United States has seen its share of colorful pursuits of suspects and fugitives, including the search for the last Native American in the United States to be tracked to his tragic end by a lawman's posse: "Willie Boy" at Ruby Mountain. San Bernardino County also was the setting for the shoot-outs at Baldy Mesa and Lytle Creek. Yet gunplay lore is only one aspect of the epic of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Today the department deploys nearly 5,000 salaried and volunteer employees to protect and serve its 20,186 square miles of deserts, mountains, forests, and increasingly urban areas. This original cow-county sheriff's office went through many developments that are detailed in these vintage photographssheriffs' administrations, equipment, investigations, and other exploitsall culled from the department's archives, private collections, the California Room of the San Bernardino Public Library, and the San Bernardino Pioneer Historical Society.

San Bernardino executive allegedly told police staff to avoid 'use of force' in reports

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, October 1, 2008

By CHRIS RICHARD
The Press-Enterprise

A senior San Bernardino police executive sought to have officers avoid the term "use of force" in their reports, substituting instead an "innocuous phrase," minutes from a July meeting show.

"Officers will be encouraged to use a term other than 'use of force' in their reports," state the minutes from the July 2 Patrol Command Staff meeting. "They can refer to it as 'an incident' or another innocuous phrase."

Department policy requires officers to report every contact with the public in which they use force, from striking a blow to firing a weapon. Supervisors must document what happened in writing.

The minutes of the July 2 meeting attribute the directive to avoid the term "use of force" to Lt. Richard Taack, acting patrol captain at the time.

In an interview Wednesday, Assistant Police Chief Walt Goggin said Taack never meant to obscure the reporting process. He said support staff prepared the minutes.

Taack would not be available for comment, Goggin said.

"Lt. Taack's sole purpose in that entry was to pass on to the subordinate officers that when they do crime reports (and) a use of force is part of that report, that they should describe in detail what happened and not refer to it only as a use of force," Goggin said.

He said he doesn't know whether Taack reviewed the July 2 document before it became public Tuesday. Patrol executives have met several times since July, but those meetings do not include formal review and approval of minutes from previous meetings, Goggin said.

He said executives met again Wednesday to correct any inconsistency and to stress the importance of documenting all uses of force in detail.

Police union President Rich Lawhead rejected Goggin's explanation.

"They have a civilian who's been taking notes in their meetings for 20-plus years," Lawhead said. "Now they're blaming this on her? This is some of the kind of stuff we've been complaining about."

Last month, union members overwhelmingly approved a resolution of no confidence against Police Chief Mike Billdt. One reason for the vote, union leaders say, is the chief's failure to distinguish routine record-keeping for the appropriate use of force from the sort of detailed investigation required when officers are accused of using force improperly or illegally.

"If they've got nothing to hide and these use-of-force forms are just for statistical data, why all this cloak-and-dagger, hiding behind the curtain kind of thing?" Lawhead said.

City Councilwoman Wendy McCammack questioned why police executives didn't address concerns about the meeting minutes sooner. She said she first discussed Taack's directive with Billdt in early September.

"If nobody reviewed the notes of that meeting until (Tuesday afternoon), then we've got some leadership problems," she said. "Either they got it very, very wrong and no one held that person accountable for their note-taking, or someone's telling some stories. It's got to be one or the other."

Billdt said any such conversation with McCammack would have taken place during a closed council meeting, and state law bars him from disclosing details of such confidential discussions.

Councilwoman Esther Estrada said Goggin's account is "symbolic of the kind of problems we have in the department."

"Personally, I don't believe it. I don't believe that this was an error committed by a subordinate," she said. "I believe that (the account in the minutes) is what happened, and I believe it calls for a full and detailed investigation and a report to the mayor and the City Council."

Such a probe, she said, should be done by an agency separate from the Police Department.

Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com

D.A. Dennis Stout Admits Errors, Drops Role in Probe

San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Dennis Stout acknowledged Wednesday that he violated his own ethical standards and made “errors in judgment” when he secretly aided the political opponent of a county supervisor he was investigating.

Consequently, Stout has stepped down from the prosecution of San Bernardino County Supervisor Jerry Eaves, one of several officials tangled in a pervasive corruption and bribery scandal. State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer has agreed to take over the case against Eaves, starting this morning, Stout announced Wednesday.

“As an elected representative of a law enforcement agency, the public should expect much of me,” Stout said in a statement. “They should expect that I would avoid even the appearance of bias or favoritism in the conduct of my office. And in this matter, I let the public down.”

Stout, however, remained defiant in an interview hours after releasing that statement.

An Ontario native who was a prosecutor for 17 years and has been San Bernardino County’s district attorney since 1994, Stout pointed out that his office has not been accused of violating any laws. He pledged to run for reelection next year and scoffed at demands from critics that he resign.

“I don’t listen to people like that,” he said. “The only people I care about are the voters of this county and the people that work with me. I think we run a very good office here.”

Court documents released in February indicated that Stout and two top lieutenants secretly aided political candidate Ed Scott last year, when he was challenging Eaves for a position on the county Board of Supervisors. Stout and Scott are Republicans and Eaves is a Democrat–the only Democrat on the five-member board.

Scott, though he had been Stout’s friend and ally for years, cooperated with FBI and Sheriff’s Department officials in an investigation into the district attorney’s conduct. During his campaign against Eaves–which he lost–Scott secretly tape-recorded his conversations with the district attorney’s office. The U.S. attorney’s office will decide whether charges will be filed.

Transcripts show the district attorney’s chief investigator Barry Bruins told Scott that “Dennis doesn’t mind us helping you. In fact, you know, he likes the idea.”

For Stout, though, Eaves was not merely a political rival–he was also the target of a corruption investigation, and Stout’s office was prosecuting the case.

In charges loosely connected to bribery and kickback schemes that led seven county officials and business executives to enter guilty pleas in 1999, Eaves was accused of taking gifts from companies seeking county contracts.

Investigators say Eaves did not report the gifts on disclosure forms, and he was indicted last year on two felony perjury charges and 17 misdemeanor misconduct charges.

Eaves’ supporters say the charges against him have been motivated by politics. Eaves, who did not return phone calls Wednesday seeking comment, has pleaded not guilty, and three of the misdemeanor charges have been dropped.

Stout said he made his decision to withdraw from the Eaves investigation after seeking a “thorough review” of his office’s conduct–a probe that included legal and ethical analyses from the attorney general’s office and other district attorneys’ offices. His office also reviewed more than 700 pages of transcripts of recorded conversations.

Stout declined to release the review of his conduct, calling it part of the ongoing Eaves investigation, though he did say he found the report “disturbing and personally embarrassing.”

And, though he does not believe the case against Eaves has been damaged by the recordings, Stout conceded that his office’s relationship with Scott should have ended once last year’s campaign got underway.

“Since Ed Scott was the political opponent of the target of an investigation that my office was conducting, it was ill-advised and improper for us to continue this relationship,” he said.

Lockyer agreed, said Gary Schons, the senior assistant attorney general who runs the department’s criminal division in San Diego.

Starting this morning, at an evidentiary hearing in the Eaves case, Deputy Atty. Gen. Scott Taylor, who works out of the department’s San Diego office, will assume prosecution of the case.

Stout “explained to the attorney general what his concerns were with continuing the prosecution,” Schons said. “We looked at it, and we agreed with him that he had legitimate concerns about his office continuing with the case.”

— UNPUBLISHED NOTE —

Jerry Eaves is also referred to as Gerald Eaves or Gerald R. Eaves in other Los Angeles Times stories.