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tax revenues going down. It is creating a negative impact on our budget. If costs for salaries and budgets go up, that means less money for training and equipment. We have to fnd ways to do more with less, and it is tough to get that done." Doing More With Less Agencies that are seeing increasing demands for service while working under tighter budget constrictions look for cost-effective ways to improve effciency. The problems of the down economy can offer agencies an opportunity to assess what resources they have to work with and make improvements to how their agencies function. One place where agencies are fnding ways to increase effciency is with their RMS, CAD and mobile software systems. If an agency is working under a decades-old software suite or using a system that is not meeting their needs, cuts to an agency's budget can lead it to explore what else is out there. Laney mentioned that in Wise County they've been using newly implemented mobile software from Spillman Technologies after searching for something to help personnel do their jobs while in the feld. She said that improvements to their mobile system help her team work effciently and do their jobs better by enabling feld personnel to access critical information away from the offce. The Spillman system allows them instant access to name records and information they would have normally had to request over the radio or retrieve at the offce. "The feedback I've gotten so far is that everyone really likes the ability to search all sorts of information," Laney said. "There is so much data going into the system that we can use. And the investigators are loving the type of information they've been able to pull out. I think the turnaround time in getting the cases solved is a lot faster because of the information that we have." Communities can take the savings even further with the ability to participate in shared software systems for CAD, RMS, mobile, and jail software. Not only do shared systems allow neighboring sheriff's offces, police departments, fre departments, jails, and communications centers to save money by distributing the cost of purchasing and administering a shared software system, it also allows them to increase effciency by sharing information. Neighboring agencies can turn to vendors like Spillman Technologies to build a shared system that meets their individual needs while helping keep costs low to the community. Springsteen said that three years ago, the Yakima County Sheriff's Offce and six communication centers, seven jail centers, and 25 fre departments all brought on a shared Spillman system that allowed them to work more effciently. But this system wouldn't have been considered if the economy, and their budgets, hadn't been a motivating factor. The frst major cost-cutting measure was to reduce the amount of redundant hardware each agency had, including maintenance costs. "If the economy hadn't tanked, I don't think we would have gotten everyone to go on one system," Springsteen noted. "We had three servers and the cities and towns on different systems so we just merged all that into this one." Springsteen said this new system also helps improve effciency. The agencies on the system share information in real time. "Yakima is a big county. We have a lot of gang activity, and before, someone could be arrested in Sunnyside and no one in Toppenish would know about that. Now that everyone is working off the same system, everyone in Toppenish can see records from Sunnyside and everywhere." According to Sergeant Titus, a software system like Spillman can help agencies save time, money, and resources. "We use our software with our daily operations. There is a lot of beneft to being on a shared system with the rest of the county. I do believe the amount of data in the database helps our offcers, for example, on the way to different homes or answering calls, so they can look and see what has taken place there already." Gallagher agrees, and said they use their shared Spillman system for information every time they respond to a call for service. Accessing information from many different agencies gives all of the offcers a full view of the criminals in their area. "When we are utilizing the database shared with the other agencies, and we search for a name record, most of the time we run across someone who is already in the system," Gallagher added. Commander Sexton said the functionality of their system improves his offcers' effciency. "Spillman is defnitely a force multiplier. I can only wish that I had this software capability on the street when I was a patrolman 25 years ago," Sexton said. "The information that is available at my offcer's fngertips with images, warnings and records is amazing. Now offcers don't have to deal with not having the information they need to do their job. Sharing information on who has had contact with a particular person is helpful, so we can plan a response based on the history of encounters." Sexton also agrees that sharing the costs with two other agencies eased the impact of the purchase. "It has helped all of us," Sexton stated. "We're forced to do more with less. The maintenance fees can take a chunk of your budget and hardware can get expensive. But sharing those costs across the board helps you out and helps out each individual agency." Overall, having one software system has helped the agencies on his system access information they need quickly and easily. "In addition, it has helped us run specifc reports that in days past we would have had to do with calculators and spreadsheets. And now we can just run reports, so we can populate that information very quickly. We share the information pretty openly, so it saves us money as far as time goes. Now I don't have to physically run over to the agency to get a report; my offcer can just access it here." Conclusion The effects of the economy have forced public safety agencies to make hard decisions about how to use the funds in their shrinking budgets in order to be as effective as they can. These communities may also be experiencing greater problems including increases in crime thanks to the diffcult economy. Agencies looking to do more with the resources they have are turning to public safety software like Spillman's integrated CAD, RMS, Jail, and mobile solutions to allow their personnel to access records in the feld, do more with the information they put in the system, and share critical data as well as costs with neighboring agencies. LaO Post your comments on this story by visiting www.lawandordermag.com www.lawandordermag.com 19