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All-in-One Quartermaster System
Multiple Needs for Quartermaster
Automation
Law enforcement agencies want a quartermaster system for
a number of reasons, beyond the mere fact of its being good
practice. Some only need to know what an officer or deputy
has been issued, so that when he or she leaves the agency,
there is one place to go for a list of what should be returned.
A number of agencies focus on the need to plan what they
need to order or more simply to know when in stock levels
are getting low. Others want to make sure that each time
an officer requests an apparel item, e.g. a dress shirt,
he or she returns a comparable item issued earlier, to avoid
excess “holdings” by an officer or deputy.
Whatever the reason, a number of factors make the issuance
of supplies, equipment, and apparel complex in a law enforcement
agency. While initial apparel issue may be part of completing
the training academy; sworn personnel may receive specialized
equipment, e.g. radios, weapons, vehicles, and cameras from
other units in the department. Some equipment for which
he or she is responsible may be embedded in the vehicle,
so that it is assigned to the individual as part of taking
responsibility for it. Some types of equipment issued for
special operations and returned shortly after use may be
controlled by yet another unit.
On top of that there are many agencies that need to account
for departmental equipment including computers, office equipment,
and in some places furniture, which may or may not be tracked
by the city or county government as well. This type of serialized
item is not accountable to the individual but to a location
or a unit within the agency. Finally, there are supplies
from pens, tablets, batteries, and other items used in offices.
These too are, usually, accountable to a unit within the
agency, rather than an individual.
The complexity of different types of items and different
points of control poses problems for tracking and control.
Simple stand alone systems cannot meet the needs of multiple
units which may issue or control different types of gear.
Moreover, many agencies prefer that those responsible for
tracking supplies and office equipment not have access to
information about the tracking of “strategic items,”
such as weapons, radios, and SWAT equipment. What results
is a multitude of separate often automated systems—vehicles,
cameras, departmental equipment, supplies, apparel, etc.
These serve the special needs of each of these units and
the type of data they need to keep descriptive information
that is unique to the types of items they control. While
convenient for specialized needs, they make it difficult
to see the whole picture—what items have been issued
to and are in the responsibility of an individual, a unit,
or a particular location.
All in One Quartermaster System
Issue TraQ provides the ability to encompass these needs
under one umbrella. It can meet the needs of small departments,
which need only track supplies and apparel. It can meet
the needs of agencies which want to track serialized items
as well, and it can be customized to meet the needs of larger
agencies with many points of issue and control, each with
its own set of special tracking and control needs.
The system tracks what is issued to an officer, deputy,
or other staff member. Certain items are consumed in their
use and are accountable to either the individual or to his
or her unit, so that clients can track what has been issued
to them. We call these consumable items.
Other items are issued to individuals but are expected to
be returned in two instances: one) when the individual wishes
“replacement” items for worn or damaged apparel
or equipment and two) when the individual leaves the agency.
Serialized equipment is tracked item by item with a unique
number on it. Apparel and other non-serialized items are
tracked by “product type,” e.g. “Dress
shirt, male, 15 x 34.” An officer may be issued three
of this item, for example and when he or she wants another,
the system can track what has been returned and account
for only the net of issues minus returns. In addition the
system can account for serialized items which are not assigned
to an individual but are either assigned to a unit within
the agency or are deployed to a certain location.
One of the features, which make use of the system attractive,
is that the typical user only needs to see three screens
to do 90 percent of the job. One allows him or her to search
items in the database and view item detail. Another is used
to issue and return items. The third is a report screen
to pull data on usage, issues, the audit trail, etc. and
to print reports from.
“Out of the box” the system tracks supplies
(consumables), serialized items issued to officers and items
that are “returnable” but are not traced individually
with a serial number or other unique number e.g. apparel
items. Serialized items include personal use such as firearms
and handcuffs included in the “out-of-the-box”
system.
Optionally users may include departmental or general use
property (computers and office furniture, though the latter
lack serial numbers). This option can be augmented by use
of the initial inventory option to populate the asset database
for start up purposes.
Barcodes Make it Easier
Most users will probably want to incorporate the option
to use barcodes. Unlike most systems, Log TraQ permits clients
to scan manufacturers’ barcodes when issuing from
the PC. (No two vendors use the same barcode on identical
products, e.g. 60 watt incandescent light bulbs. We provide
printers to print barcodes for item, shelf, and employee
identification, as well as asset quality barcodes for equipment
and furniture deployed to office and shop areas. We provide
tethered scanners for use in issuing from PCs and mobile
scanners to provide portability to users in issuing and
receiving and more importantly in taking physical inventory
audits of stockrooms and deployed general purpose equipment
and furniture.
Many Issue Points for One
System
The system is designed so that it can be enhanced to provide
the ability for different persons operating from different
locations on the network to issue different types of items
and limit the information that they can view to those items
for which they are responsible. The range may issue fire
arms, the IT unit laptops and PDAs, and other units may
be responsible for issuing cameras, stop sticks, and radios.
Despite this distribution of control points, the system
will permit authorized persons to view any and all items,
as may be needed when an individual terminates or otherwise.
Since one of the reasons why specialized units keep their
own spread sheets or homegrown databases designed in Access
is that they need to keep track of information that is not
relevant to other units. Issue TraQ has been designed to
accommodate them as well. The system allows up to eight
different screen tabs of special information and QueTel
can configure the system to provide this flexibility. Clients
can put in special data for weapons, radios, vehicles, cameras,
stop sticks, etc. Moreover, as needs change QueTel provides
on an annual basis a refresh of these special fields to
accommodate special users.
Interfaces
This means large or small your agency can track what it
issues in the same type of system that it uses to track
property and evidence. We can even set up the system so
that officer or deputy names and numbers can be put into
one system and made available to another. Moreover, on a
custom basis, we can interface to your human resources system
so that new hires and terminations are automatically fed
to TraQ.
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