October 13, 2022 |
Saratoga Police can coordinate more efficiently with each other and with outlying departments thanks to improved technology.
County I.T. Department Director Matt Webster briefed commissioners at their last meeting on the development. Webster said Saratoga Police are now communicating on the same Spillman platform as other agencies in the county.
Pictured above: File photo of Saratoga Town Hall/Police Department. Photo by Cali O’Hare/Bigfoot 99.
The Spillman system, developed by a Salt Lake City company, allows emergency responders to communicate and have access to data through sophisticated dispatch software. From a dispatch center to laptops mounted in a squad car on patrol, the Spillman platform allows different jurisdictions to use a shared communication and law-enforcement database system while preserving agency autonomy.
At the October 4th Carbon County Commissioners meeting, Webster told the board that the install and interface of the Saratoga system with the county server was successful.
The Spillman system was installed in Saratoga on October 3rd and 4th. Saratoga Police Chief Kenneth Lehr briefed town council on the technology upgrade at last week’s regular meeting.
Purchasing the Spillman system was an agenda item on reports from the police department at nearly every Saratoga Town Council meeting for the first six months of 2022. Questions about contracts with Spillman purchased by a previous administrations but never activated combined with the age of department equipment contributed to the confusion. In the end, town council appropriated $85,000 for the system during this year’s budget session. A separate digi-ticket component was still not activated as of last week, Chief Lehr said.
Digi-ticket is a paperless ticket system Sgt. Christen advocated for during council meetings saying that the technology saves officers time while writing up tickets and allows them to stay more situationally aware of their surroundings while writing up traffic violations or other infractions.
