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Considerations in Choosing a Bar
Code Property and Evidence System
Purpose
The purpose of a property and evidence system is to make
it simple to learn the software and quick to maintain both
accurate and secure information on items stored in the property
room and to support the security of the items themselves.
Simple to Learn
While the purpose of software is to simplify tasks, most
systems require extensive training and constant reference
to a detailed operating manual. The standard should be set
so typical users can learn the system's main functions --
entering new records, querying or searching for old records,
and generating reports -- without reference to a manual.
Software screens and menu options should include on-screen
explanations of the functions of both menu options and short
cut tool bars so users do not have to reference the manual.
In addition, the system should include both a manual and
internal help function organized with a table of contents
and an index allowing users to look for help by topic.
Menu selections and drop pick lists and dialogue boxes should
be Windows standard, organized intuitively, and use standard
Windows or English terms. They should avoid non-Windows
technical terms. All menu selections should be available
by mouse click for easy learning, and keystroke combinations
for speed of entry.
The Department should have the freedom in the system to
establish and define its own property description fields
to fit its needs and have the vendor incorporate them in
the delivered software. The Department should be able to
define the field type (date, number, logical, etc.), title
(screen prompts and report headings), and length. This flexibility
to incorporate terms familiar to the Department, rather
than forcing them to adjust to someone else's standard descriptors,
will make the system easier to learn and use.
Quick to Use and Maintain
Users spend about 90 percent of their computer time entering,
editing, and querying data. We have observed systems that
require several steps and many minutes to process each item
of property into the system. If you can cut two minutes
per item out of the data entry function, a typical department
can save about two hours per day in staff time.
The vendor should be able to arrange the data entry and
query screen to display data entry fields in the same order
or sequence as information is presented on the property
report. This consistency will prevent users from having
to adjust how they enter data to someone else's idea of
how the screen should be set up, make data entry quicker,
and allow users more time for disposition and control activities.
While entering data from a property report with multiple
items on it into the PC, users should not have to retype
the fixed information such as officer, case number, suspect,
owner address etc. The system should provide a mechanism
to avoid this type of time consuming repetitive entry.
Entering information should be flexible and posting of entries
for newly added item records or changes to existing record
entries should not take more than two seconds. This avoids
1) users wasting time while the computer processes the entered
data and 2) does not force users into a two-stage process
of entering some information into a portable data (collection)
terminal (PDT) and other information into the PC screen.
Recording the movement of items in and out of the property
room and from bin to bin within the property room should
be simplified by the use of bar code scanners attached to
or part of a PDT. The system should also provide the option
of attaching a bar code scanner to the PC to record in and
out movements. Using bar code technology to record movement
saves time in updating the electronic record as well as
making data more accurate.
Accurate Information
The accuracy of data protects both the credibility of the
Department and saves time in searching for missing items
or running reports and can save money by reducing the amount
the department pays to citizens whose property cannot be
found.
To keep data accurate and consistent, the system should
employ user definable "look up" tables to act
as automated dictionaries to check that key entries are
valid. This feature prevents data entry errors and inconsistency
in spellings. It removes the types of errors that make accurate
reporting nearly impossible and frustrate standard searches
for items.
The system should permit easy, quick physical inventory
using a one-piece PDT and laser scanner. The laser scanner
increases the accuracy of the bar code scans and simplifies
scanning hard to read labels or labels placed on uneven
surfaces. The inventory process should produce "exceptions"
reports that identify items that are missing from the appropriate
bin and are, instead, in a bin where they do not belong.
This capability will make it quick and easy enough to conduct
inventories, so they can be performed on a regular schedule.
By regular inventory, the possibility of missing items and
inaccurate data is greatly reduced.
The accuracy of data is also increased by controlling access
to it (see below).
Secure Information
Easy to update and secure information is the best means
of preventing loss or possible fraud in the property room.
No system, by itself, can absolutely guarantee security,
but certain measures such as access rights, audit trails,
and regular inventory can reduce the potential for such
problems.
The system should be able to provide multiple levels of
functional security, so that individual users' access can
be allowed or denied for each of the 40 or more functions
that the system can perform. Systems that allow users to
define the classic three levels of "read," write,"
and "systems administrator," lack sufficient flexibility
if the department wants to define more than three types
of users.
The system should have the ability to add an option that
includes enhanced security down to the record level and
field level access. This can allow officers to access records,
but only those records that they are involved in (i.e. that
has their officer or employee number in it). It may allow
authorized users to view whole records, but exclude them
from viewing or editing certain fields of data that they
do not need to see or use.
In addition to an electronic chain of evidence, the system
must automatically record every change to a record in the
database. This feature produces an audit trail of who was
logged onto the system when the change was made, when (time
and date) the change was made, what field was changed, and
what the field was changed from. This prevents someone from
removing evidence, such as some cocaine or money, and then
altering the record to adjust the weight or amount.
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