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ISYS product: ISYS:desktop
Organization: Ventura County Sheriff's Department
Benefit: Saving time and manpower finding crime information.
Industry: Law Enforcement
Data indexed: 15 years' worth of crime data
Available on: Local Area Network
No. of users: 5
Favorite feature: Intelligent Agent
Used ISYS since: 2001
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Case Study - Ventura
County Sheriff's Department
The mission of the
Ventura County Sheriff's Department is to protect and serve the people
of the county. Steve Sullivan, Crime Analyst II for the East County Jurisdiction,
utilizes ISYS in fulfilling this mission. Sullivan supervises a team of
computer "detectives" that use databases, information systems
and ISYS to help solve crimes.
Other counties share
large volumes of information with Ventura County, and bulletins are received
from different sources. "Crime Analysts are in the information business.
It is imperative that we have access to the information we need, when
we need it," says Sullivan.
Several law enforcement
databases are often transferred from one agency to another. "The
databases are extensive and time consuming to go through when searching
for something specific," says Sullivan. The need for immediate access
to information prompted Sullivan's decision to invest in ISYS. "The
speed at which ISYS retrieves information is remarkable," adds Sullivan.
In one case, a suspect
was arrested during a burglary and the investigating detective believed
the perpetrator was responsible for 39 other burglaries in the area. The
detective remembered that in one of the burglaries, blood samples were
taken from the scene. The detective complained to Sullivan that he'd have
to read through hundreds of pages of reports to find the relevant case.
Sullivan searched two databases simultaneously with ISYS and found the
case within seconds.
When Sullivan transferred
from Los Angles to Ventura, he took over a unit that had 15 years' worth
of documents, reports and other information stored on computer. "Imagine
trying to wade through 15 years of data and trying to guess where everything
was stored. There were files on the system in formats that were no longer
installed on our machines. With ISYS, I could access the information I
needed regardless of location and format," says Sullivan.
One reason Sullivan invested in ISYS
was the Intelligent Agent feature, which allows users to identify their
areas of interest and reports back as relevant new information enters
the system. "Often an investigator will ask us to provide more information
on a particular case. Information might enter our information bank 10
minutes, an hour or 3 months from now, and ISYS helps us respond to the
investigators as soon as the information is available," says Sullivan.
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