Every law enforcement agency has its own unique origin story, and unique problems as a result of that origin story.
Chatham County Police Department (CCPD) is a good example of this. It was established to serve the unincorporated areas of Chatham County, Georgia in 1912. In 2005, CCPD merged with the City of Savannah Police Department. Twelve years later, the Savannah City Council broke up the merger, and CCPD had to rebuild itself as an independent force.
By the time Marty Ellis joined CCPD as their new quartermaster, it was clear that the current way of managing the department’s assets just wasn’t working. “The inventory system software that CCPD used was kind of an add-on to the overall system that they were using for ticketing and related matters,” he said. “So it wasn’t really specific for our asset management needs. For example, if you had 50 items that you had to put into inventory, you couldn’t just do a mass entry and have it pop into the system. You had to do it pretty much one by one.”
To solve this problem, CCPD sought bids for a new asset management system. After a competitive process, the department chose Collective Data’s Quartermaster, the secure cloud-based asset management system made by law enforcement professionals for law enforcement agencies.
“I was sold on Quartermaster from the start,” said Ellis. “It was very police oriented and designed to let us do as much or as little as we wanted to with the system, with Collective Data building it to our needs. When we went through the bidding process, I had my fingers crossed. Thankfully, they came out on top and it’s been great ever since.”
MANY BENEFITS FOR CCPD
The initial faith that Marty Ellis had in Quartermaster has been validated by the many benefits this system is delivering to CCPD.
A case in point: “When it comes to doing entries and issuing equipment, it’s so much easier now,” Ellis said. “With the little add-ons and shortcuts that Quartermaster has, you can build a kit of everything a new recruit needs. So instead of having to assign them one thing at a time, you can just click on this one kit and it’ll assign everything that this person needs in one shot. As I said, that makes my job as CCPD Quartermaster a whole lot easier.”
The Collective Data Quartermaster system also has a built-in report building function. “If any of my chain of command comes to me and says, ‘Hey Marty, how are we looking at the issue of ballistic helmets’, I can pull that up on the inventory and get them a nice report in seconds,” said Ellis. “Yet again, it’s definitely made my job a lot easier than the way we were doing it before, which relied on tracking paper files and dealing with our old software.”
As well, Collective Data’s Quartermaster asset management system tracks how many items remain in stock and alerts Ellis any time that specific supply levels drop to a predetermined re-ordering threshold. “Before Quartermaster, we were having to periodically physically check the shelves to answer questions such as, ‘Okay, how many boxes of latex gloves do I have?’” he said. “Today, this asset management system will automatically send me an alert that effectively says, ‘Hey, you’re running low on latex gloves. You might want to reorder.’ Plus Quartermaster can keep track of your purchase orders to make sure that people delivered what they promised.”
CERTIFICATIONS AND EXPIRATIONS
In addition to the many benefits listed above, Quartermaster helps Marty Ellis keep on top of certifications and expirations.
In the first category, “one of our admin sergeants who works on certifications asked me for a report on the current status of our officers, with respect to their accreditation to use oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray,” Ellis said. “I went into Quartermaster’s report generation tool, adjusted the filters to specify OC spray, and printed out a paper report in five minutes, complete with our departmental logo.”
Quartermaster can also track your training operations. “Say if someone’s certification is running out,” said Ellis. “Quartermaster will alert us so that we can send out a message to that person that says ‘Officer Smith, your certification is close to expiring. You need to do this to keep it up to date.”
In the second category, “if one of my chiefs comes to me and says, ‘how are we looking on vests? Are any of ‘em coming close to their expiration date?’ I can ask Quartermaster for the answer and put it into an accurate report in minutes,” Ellis said. “Before, we’d have to sift through two-three filing cabinets stuffed full of documents to find out.”
ALWAYS EASY TO USE
In performing all of the functions noted above, the Collective Data Quartermaster asset management system is always easy to use. “Yes, it is really simple to work with,” said Ellis. “Quartermaster is very user friendly, with familiar functions like dropdown menus, shortcuts and other common website features that are comfortable for even the most basic of web surfers. Collective Data also supplies the barcode labels and scanners, the RFID tags and readers and everything else you need to move your department to this modern platform. And they are right there with you with solid training and support.”
Add the fact that Collective Data customizes Quartermaster precisely to meet the needs of each individual department and Marty Ellis is very happy that CCPD chose this asset management system to support his function. “These guys are amazing,” he said. “They build it to your specs, how you want it, how you want things labeled, how you want your logo to look; all that. They will personalize it just for you. I am so glad that Collective Data won the bid, because Quartermaster is the right asset management system to help me do my job right.”
To learn more about Quartermaster, visit Collective Data.
