It could take a lot of money to fix the Lawrence Police Department's crime-reporting system.
The department is looking for an adequate means of transmitting crime statistics to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. It also is interested in streamlining crime analyses for police consumption and for use by public interest groups such as neighborhood associations, Police Chief Ron Olin said.
Right now, the department can't adequately transmit crime data to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
"We're trying to put together a different way of reporting with a more sophisticated link to the KBI," Olin said. "None of our efforts have been effective so far."
As a test project last summer, the department set up a computer system to transmit crime statistics to the KBI. Reception on the KBI end was difficult and slow, Olin said; the system could take 20 minutes or more to send one report.
KBI officials have told Olin it could take between $200,000 and $600,000 to fix the problem.
Lawrence Police do have the capability of putting a year's worth of crime statistics on a compact disc that could be given to the KBI, Olin said. Those statistics, however, wouldn't necessarily be in the KBI's format.
Lawrence isn't the only law enforcement agency that has the KBI reporting problem. Similar problems have been encountered by agencies in Johnson County, Wichita and Kansas City, Kan.
Over the past few years the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department has been integrating a computer report management system (RMS). It now is testing a new program for sending statistics to the KBI, said Lt. Mike Webb.
The system for Kansas City, which has a much larger police department than Lawrence, cost $2.2 million, and covers several different computerized aspects.
Lawrence Police employ two civilians to handle crime analysis. The analysts, however, have to conduct their work by manually going through police and computer-aided dispatching records, a time-consuming process, Olin said.
An analysis might include criminal intelligence information on possible suspects. Victims would also be named.
Sharing a crime analysis with neighborhood groups at this time is difficult because no easy way exists to take out police intelligence information, Olin said.
There are also ethical concerns about releasing victims' names. Victims' names are on daily police reports available to the public, but Olin said he questioned the idea of releasing victims' names on a continual basis.
"You could argue and I understand the argument there is no reason these can't be made public," Olin said. "But I would argue that if you wholesale make everything we do public you will neuter our ability to do our law enforcement role because people will not call" to report crimes.
Lawrence Police want to put together a system that will allow community groups to get the information they need.
"I think we can get it done," Olin said. "But I think people have underestimated what they've asked us to do with the database designed for a different function."
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