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Richardson Police Department |
| Richardson Police Department |
We all do it, with similar results: 97-99 percent false alarm rates, cumbersome administrative procedures, up to 25 percent of all calls, lackluster collections and a daily drain on police resources. What if an outside partner could help? What if this partnership reduced false alarms and costs and increased revenue?
In mid-2003, the Richardson, Texas, Police Department (RPD) asked a company to provide installation, conversion, operation, and service of an "Alarm Tracking and Billing (ATB) system to reduce false alarms. This resulted in a revenue sharing partnership with PMAM Corporation of Irwing, Texas.
Working together, RPD and PMAM developed a full-service solution that redirected the limited police resources away from administration of the alarm program. A custom, interactive, Web-based alarm administration program was designed. PMAM's employees run the program, freeing the police staff to concentrate on other needs. The objectives were to reduce false alarm rates by maintaining up-to-the minute records and educating permit holders and to increase revenues. |
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| Background |
| Despite the complexity and size of this program, a bifurcated system existed for administration of our program, with no one person or city department dedicated to it. RPD handled the permitting, follow-up, correspondence, reporting, and communications, while the finance department handled invoicing and collections. City growth through the years, coupled with inaccurate record-keeping and changes in process and staff resulted in two systems that were not integrated. Systematic follow-up and administrative tasks were cumbersome, resulting in inefficient administration.
This led to a lack of confidence in the permit data. The command staff was reluctant to allow enforcement of our alarm ordinance. This ultimately led to an increasing cascade of false alarms that consumed sizeable police resources. |
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Objectives
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The objectives were simple: reduce the number of false alarms (thus saving valuable police resources) and increase revenue by timely collection of renewal fees, fines, and new permit fees. We explored partnering with a company to manage the administration and maintenance of the system.
Under the proposal, the selected partner was required to:
- Deliver software that accurately maintains and tracks false-alarm data.
- Send alarm permit renewal applications to citizens.
- Send alarm permit applications to residents who have unregistered alarms.
- Download "call data" daily.
- Send out letters and invoices to residences/businesses who have excessive alarm activity.
- Follow up with defaulters who have not paid their fees.
- Collect fees.
- Reconcile accounts on a regular basis.
- Identify the top 5 percent false alarm reporting residents/businesses and send them educational material to bring them into compliance.
- Respond to all inquiries from citizens in a timely manner.
- Provide required information and reports to RPD and other city officials on a regular basis.
Other vital objectives are enforcement and education. Once accurate and timely posting of data was obtained, patrol officers were able to enforce the ordinance by issuing citations to violators on the initial call. Education plays an important role. If permit holders are more aware of the causes of false alarms they tend to be more careful and avoid repeated false activations. |
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| How We Achieved the Objectives |
| A full-service, interactive Web-based application was created that increased the number of renewal permit applications and reduced the overall false alarm count. PMAM leveraged the cost advantage of existing solutions customized for the city of Richardson. This reduced operating costs and increased profits for the city. |
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| Customizing to the City Ordinance |
| The development team spent considerable time gaining an in-depth understanding of the existing processes of the system. Once the project was awarded, our system was built upon a program that was customized to suit the needs of the system as specified in the RFP. |
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| Enhancing services for citizens |
Several enhancements to the original concept were made in consultation with the RPD and city officials to provide citizens up-to-date information and the ability for ease in payment. All of this was designed to provide superior customer service and reduce permit-holder calls to determine billing status. Some of the enhancements are:
- Web-based, self-service log-in capabilities for citizens to maintain their account
- Listing of alarm account history with dates and times of all calls at each permit location
- Online bill payment
- Detailed invoice generation, with the history of all false alarms
- Allowing users personalized password to view and update information
- Tracking new and existing permits
- Numerous customized false alarm and violation reports
- Billing notifications
- Collection services
- Administrator real-time summary information
All pertinent data downloaded from the city's existing alarm and accounts-receivable databases was accurately converted to populate the system. An interface was developed to upload data from RPD's VisionAIR CAD and ArcView GIS of a daily basis. The interface allows all parties to share and benefit from the most current and accurate information and does not cause disruption to the city operations |
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| Learning from experience - Educating businesses for proper alarm usage |
| By reviewing our alarm response, we acknowledged that businesses cause many false alarms. One explanation for this is high manager turnover and the lack of training for new employees. A multimedia CD that responding officers leave at businesses upon false alarm response was created to address this. New employees can learn about the precautions they should take to reduce false alarms. |
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| Providing Support to citizens |
| To maintain customer service, a single point of contact, located in an Irving, Texas, office, is dedicated for citizen assistance. This person has intimate knowledge of the system and the city. |
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| Continually enhancing the program |
| Currently, one staff software specialist is dedicated to develop additional features, reports, and modules that are needed to continuously improve the software. In addition to the existing reports, new reports were identified to view the effectiveness, efficiency, and accuracy of the information. Through the use of access passwords, RPD, and city officials can monitor all levels of the program. Routine analysis is performed to determine future enhancements. |
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| Results |
Better accountability, higher compliance, informative invoicing, and the ongoing educational process have advanced the goal of reducing false alarms. This allows for better deployment of sworn and nowsworn police staffing. Reliable data allows officers to enforce the ordinance by issuing citations.
No city jobs were lost by outsourcing. In fact, the effectiveness of the program has freed overburdened city personnel from the vast majority of alarm administrative duties. Officers can now focus more on false-alarm education and enforcement. This has also saved the city hiring and training expenses for additional city staff.
As the process has evolved, the RPD command staff has developed an exceptional working relationship with PMAM. We have found them to be very responsive to our concerns. They have become a trusted partner that delivers on its promises. |
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| Contact |
Richardson Police Department
972-744-4800 |
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Richardson Police Department
FAMS™ helps the Richardson, Texas, Police Department, (RPD) manage their alarm tracking and billing system by implementing a revenue sharing partnership. It resulted in reducing false alarm incidents substantially since 2004, freeing up police resources from alarm administrative duties, and increasing city revenue.
Read the full success story... |
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