Investigation / Case Management Software

[bowser]

I know that many departments have some kind of case management software. I am using a software called X-Fire (pronounced cross fire). It is developed and designed to be extremely user friendly. It will allow investigators to attach any file type (video, photo, document etc). It also permits officers to track the progress of a file by a robust tasking and audit system. When you want a report you can select what you want and it will create an indexed PDF with all the attached files hyperlinked. The company that designed the software is Agnovi Corporation.

www.agnovi.com

[FN21]

We use Niche RMS and it's pants.  Everyone hates it!!

[bowser]

Check out the website.

We had a prosecutor tell a special unit to "get that software" after we had a file that had 3,000 documents and 14-2hr videos attached and indexed. In fact in court when I was looking for a document that I wasn't prepared for during a search warrant challenge the prosecutor said "your honour if you don't mind I would like to assist the officer as I know X-Fire quite well". (that wasn't neccessary as I just had to get the right disk as we had the evidence disc in a certain order).

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

This is all new to me, in my days you didn't need the gym so much cos lugging the paper files and other evidence to court was a workout in itself...

[bowser]

Know the feeling. I had one file where we seized 30,000 pages of documents. When it was all said and done we needed 4 copies of everything which equated to 400, 4 inch binders. Now that would equate to about 4 DVDs with this new program 

[jimbob]

The way the government have you recording every last detail, we could all just have a hard drive implanted inside us when we join and get it to record everything we say and everything we do....well, almost.

[bowser]

This software brings in accountability into the fold. It is based on Major Case Management principals and every action is tasked and every response (task action) is recorded and notes, statements etc are attached to that task action. If the task is submitted and not as complete as the officer issuing the task would like it is not accepted and the investigator is automatically sent a message with the deficiencies attached.

Basically everything done is documented as you go. In fact if you are late on a task a red message appears as soon as you log in to the system.

[FN21]

This software brings in accountability into the fold. It is based on Major Case Management principals and every action is tasked and every response (task action) is recorded and notes, statements etc are attached to that task action. If the task is submitted and not as complete as the officer issuing the task would like it is not accepted and the investigator is automatically sent a message with the deficiencies attached.

Basically everything done is documented as you go. In fact if you are late on a task a red message appears as soon as you log in to the system.

Two biggest drains on the time of a frontline Police officer:

1) Collecting and inputting data for the purposes of recording statistics.
2) Audit trails.

[bowser]

Agree, but you know what the officers I had on my team when we used this software on a large really liked the speed and ease of entering the data.

The benefit of entering everything as you go is that when you are finished you just click a few buttons and everything is ready for disclosure. You can burn it on discs, flash drives etc or if you need to you can print the reports.

Prosecutor loves having the disclosure when charges are laid!

All entries are time stamped with the user and if changed when. As well there is a complete audit feature that shows everything that was done in relation to the file. For example it shows who logged in and when, what the officer looked at, what files were opened, what was changed etc.

[FN21]

Yup IT has undoubtedly made these things easier eh!  Niche is very similar to what you describe, but not as popular with officers!  Same features but not very easy to use!!

[bowser]

Though X-Fire is not the RMS that every officer uses. Mostly used by my dept as a Major Case Management tool the officers that have used it really like it. It is designed on the KISS principal.

Attachments are copy / paste and it has spell check (I really need that) it also has the ability to search the attachments for key words.

The other nice thing is that it has system generated or officer generated link analysis charts and can produce officer generated time line charts. This is really nice for a visualization of the file.

In addition to X-Fire I use REX (the intelligence collection version of X-Fire) in my work. This operates virtually the same way but doesn't have the tasking features.

[bowser]

New version has incident module, document vetting in the program and new reports and functionality available.

[bowser]

The new X-Fire version has an incident capture module included as well as really easy to use, system generated link analysis charts (can develop your own as well) and offer developed time-line charts.  Officers can visualize linkages without necessarily having other software and training to develop charts.

It also has a field that will capture latitude and longitude entries.