In September, my team and I start planning for our massive event schedule. The International Association of Chiefs of Police annual conference (IACP 2019) in Chicago this coming October is one of them. This year’s theme, in particular, “Shaping the Future of Law Enforcement,” caught my attention.

As we look at advancements in technology, one area that is gaining momentum is automated solutions to help with police incident reporting. Like other industries that rely on extensive documentation, law enforcement has begun to realize that the future-state of reporting can’t be only a manual one.

There is no room or space for inaccurate, incomplete, or delayed reports for these professionals. Departments who understand this recognize that they can no longer rely on manual documentation methods.  They need their officers to create incident reports faster to meet prosecution deadlines, and to capture as much detail and accuracy of each civilian encounter as possible.

Officers, who write reports in the field or are hunched over the MDT to enter data or lookup license plates, need better ways to stay heads-up and situationally aware. If departments do not address these problems, it can eat away at productivity, reduce community visibility, and, in general, contribute to risk – from burnout to impeding officer safety.

It will serve departments well to look at better methods and technologies to help improve incident reporting, and robust new police reporting solutions will shape how police paperwork gets done in the future.

If you plan to attend IACP 2019, stop by our booth. I’d love to chat with you about the future.