Momentum Builds in California for Mark43
Colleen McCanna | 13 February 2020 | 3 minute read
Mark43, the leading cloud-based public safety software, continues to build momentum in the state of California. Currently 25 of our live agencies are in California, with 11 more Golden State agencies signed and eager to launch on our Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management System (RMS) software in the near future. Mark43 has taken a number of steps to continue to grow our West Coast footprint, including opening an office in Los Angeles County in 2017, and more recently being approved for use with a dedicated California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) line, and being accepted onto the Software Licensing Program (SLP) procurement vehicle.
NEW CALIFORNIA AGENCIES AND SUCCESSFUL LAUNCHES
Over the past two years, Mark43’s presence in California has expanded from a cluster of agencies in the southern part of the state, to now serving the needs of law enforcement agencies across Northern California and the Central Valley. Many of these agencies have chosen to implement the full Mark43 platform, which yields the benefits and efficiencies of having a wholly integrated CAD and RMS.
In 2017 the Richmond Police Department went live using Mark43’s RMS.1 Very quickly, the department reported seeing significant time and cost savings. Richmond patrol supervisors highlighted that they were benefiting from being able to access their systems and information remotely, and in the field, which was not something they could do with their legacy system. Then, in late 2018 RPD communications went live on Mark43 CAD, bringing the agency onto a single CAD/RMS platform. The benefits of this transition included empowering officers and dispatchers alike to instantly access real-time data from both systems, and further streamlining workflows such as initiating report writing directly from CAD tickets, and auto-populating event related data into the associated report fields.
Mark43 has made a huge difference just in the way that we do business. Everything has become pretty much paperless with the officers being able to see exactly what’s going on within the system out in the field. I don’t need to send somebody information any longer. If we have photos attached to a particular case or a master profile they’re able to look those up. We did not have that ability previously.
-Kay Carzoli, Richmond PD Records Supervisor
Integrations using Mark43’s open API, such as with Shotspotter, have made the capabilities within Richmond PD’s single platform even more robust. The Shotspotter integration automatically generates a CAD event at the exact moment a shot is detected, meaning that the time from gunshot to officer awareness in the field is near instantaneous.
Following Richmond’s lead, many other California agencies have launched, or are preparing to launch on both Mark43 CAD and RMS, to take full advantage of the single platform benefits. In all, 33 of the 36 Mark43 customer agencies in the state are either currently live on, or in the process of implementing, the full platform.
CLETS AND DATA EXCHANGE FUNCTIONALITY
In July of 2019, the Novato Police Department went live on Mark43 CAD and RMS on the same day. Novato PD’s launch was also noteworthy, as they were the first California agency to be approved by the state’s Department of Justice to use Mark43 software for CLETS access. Using their dedicated line to CLETS, Novato PD is running inquiries and receiving results in Mark43 CAD as they respond to calls for service, and making use of the robust suite of Mark43 features.
Call takers, dispatchers and first responders have the ability to quickly and seamlessly run person, vehicle, firearm, boat, and article queries; returns from various local, state, and federal databases can be routed to others and attached to the CAD event for easy future reference. Additionally, features such as the autorouting of returns can reduce the number of steps required to run inquiries and ensure that all relevant parties have access to important information.
With the approval of a dedicated CLETS line, California agencies can take advantage of this comprehensive interface with external databases, and ensure that their officers and dispatchers have access to the information they need while serving the community.
CALIFORNIA SOFTWARE LICENSING PROGRAM APPROVAL
Recently, Mark43 signed a contract with the California Software Licensing Program (SLP), and is now listed as an approved vendor on the California Department of General Services website.2 This contract reduces the need for individual police departments to conduct repetitive acquisitions for proprietary software licenses and software upgrades. Instead of requests for proposal (RFPs), the SLP offers an easier and cost-effective procurement route that takes advantage of large volume discounts from major software publishers.
Through the agreement, Mark43 negotiates extensive discounts with major software publishers that are then passed on to the state through the SLP contracts established with authorized resellers – VIP, SOS, and Shade Partners. The contract keeps pricing consistent statewide and enables agencies to get the best deal for Mark43 across the board.
Overall, the contract with SLP will make it possible for Mark43’s California momentum to keep pace throughout 2020.
