Greendale Police Switch from 'Archaic' to Modern System

The will be getting a new records management system after years of being the lone wolf in Milwaukee County with an outdated system.

The Greendale Village Board of Trustees approved the new system Pro Phoenix for the amount of $275,000. Most of the surrounding municipalities are using this system or willl eventually switch over soon.

The department was using a system called Enforcer since 1985. Many agencies that used that system switched to a different one over the last decade. It was no longer financially feasible for the company to continue running, which led to Greendale purchasing the rights to Enforcer in 2006. Since then the department has been the only one using Enforcer with support administered by a consultant.

The original idea behind Enforcer was to create a system that was would work well between multiple departments in order to communicate as well as share information and records.

Little data could now be drawn from Enforcer for analysis, reporting or documentation. A new system would provide modern capabilities including the ability to extract statistical information and in order to better work with other agencies and provide information.

Pro Phoenix would improve the following:

• Allow Greendale Police and Fire to more effectively work together.
• Allow Greendale Fire to better work with other Milwaukee County Departments who at times provide assistance to Greendale.
• Have the ability to share records, photos, investigations, resources, information, intelligence, etc. between police and fire departments county-wide, and with Waukesha and Racine Counties.
• Eliminate redundancy of data entry.
• Give the opportunity to save considerably by being “hosted” by another agency.
• Will not have to purchase the extra hardware, servers, storage, pay for IT support, etc.

Greendale Police has been saving for this project for three years, and has saved about $275,000 in the equipment reserve to fund a new system. The Greendale Fire Department has committed up to $30,000 to help cover some of the cost in the purchase of the Pro Phoenix software.

Greendale Police Chief Bob Malasuk presented to the board on the Dec. 20 board meeting. He told the board he was able to get some discounted rates on the system. The board unanimously voted to allow the purchase.