The Public Safety Department is
the : Law Enforcement , under
the leadership of
Colonel Jennifer Kindall,
Fire Services under leadership of
Chief William Ale, and
Technical & Support Services under the leadership of
Major Doug Horton. These
divisions are all under the direction of
Director A. Tony Fisher.
Within the organization, there are 128 sworn law enforcement
officers, 74 firefighters, and 45 civilians. The
Public Safety Agency provides emergency police and fire response for
a residential population of approximately 47,000, which swells to a
daytime population that exceeds 125,000, which includes workers
outside the city limits.
The Public Safety Department has put
forth a diligent effort over the last five years to raise the level
of technology to an unprecedented level. We have implemented a
Records Management System (RMS) on a DOS based platform, which was
upgraded to NT technology in January 1999 to take advantage of NT's
security and computer networking strengths. This RMS software helps
to precisely track and account for the activities of both the Fire
Division and Police Services. We utilize state of the art
fingerprint identification system (AFIS), digital mug shot capture
and retrieval, City Watch Emergency notification and extensive
computerization of the operation. This allows for the "sharing" of
information between Law and Fire agencies to accelerate identifying
suspects using the advanced computer technologies available (both
finger prints and mug shots), and having close at hand, a city-wide
network to communicate any public emergencies. Our ultimate goal
is to become as paperless as possible over the next eighteen months
as we move toward assigned laptop computers, in-car data terminals,
apparatus equipped with computer terminals; and additional
technological advances related to the capture and transfer of data,
picture and information. Thus, we save resources both financial and
ecological, and provide the public with the fastest available
responses to their needs.