Pasadena Police Department Replaces 11-Year-Old System to Improve Dispatch and Record-Keeping Capabilities

The Pasadena Police Department recently installed new computer systems as part of the ongoing Computer Aided Dispatch-Records Management System (CAD-RMS) upgrade within the department, Acting Commander Marcia Taglioretti confirmed. 

“A CAD RMS system is the backbone of the PPD day to day operations. We would not be able to operate efficiently without it,” Taglioretti said. 

According to a Police Department report sent to the Public Safety Committee in 2020, the Department relies on the CAD system for the management of emergency responders, all field based police resources, and all calls for service. 

It relies on RMS for the creation, storage and administration of official police records, such as crime reports, investigative reports, court documents, and criminal histories. 

These systems are used for jail booking records and prisoner management, property and evidence inventory management, crime analysis and case management for detectives. 

In 2020, the City Council approved a $3.6 million contract with Versaterm, Inc., of Ottawa, Canada, for the CAD-RMS upgrade in order to improve the Department’s dispatch and record-keeping capabilities.

The new systems replaced the systems provided by the West Covina Services Group that Pasadena had used for over 10 years.

According to Taglioretti, aside from the CAD-RMS upgrade, computers at the Department have also been upgraded. 

Additionally, new computers have been added at substations for user access.  

Taglioretti said the Department encountered challenges during the implementation of these new technologies.

“A major challenge for Pasadena is changing the internal process of our report writing. We changed from pen and paper reports to a contemporary Report writing system. Many of our paper forms are not built into the Versaterm system. Such forms need to be completed outside of the Versaterm system, scanned and attached to the General Offense Report on the Versaterm system,” Taglioretti said.

“Changes to internal operations to ensure workflow was not disrupted is also a challenge.” 

Shifting to the new system allowed the department to look at all processes within the Department, including some processes that have been in place for decades. 

“We were able to research if they were still necessary and made adjustments,” Taglioretti said.

According to the contract awarded to Versaterm, Inc. for the CAD-RMS upgrade, $1 million will be utilized during the first year of the contract implementation, $855,670 will be used in 2022 and $484,435 will be used annually for the next three years starting 2023 for the ongoing licensing, maintenance, and support services.