No, you're absolutely right, sir. One area that I'm responsible for is the records management systems of the organization, the how and the why behind the use of the systems available to us. The constant complaint is that the boys and girls aren't on the road but are in doing finger-poking to put information into systems.
First of all, we have to get away from the idea that paperwork is not police work. In my day, if we had what we called the C-237, which was a serious crime report, you sat in there and pounded away on an old Olivetti, making triple copies and whatnot. We called it paperwork, but it was still police work. When you do a search warrant, you still have to type up a search warrant.
The other side of that very sharp sword is that when we need statistics, we have to be able...and this is what Troy and his team are trying to do. When you go into the electronic systems right now and you type in that you arrested somebody on the old C-13s, there's a drop-down list that comes up with the subject behaviour and officer response. There are check boxes on there. There's something that paints them into a corner. There's no interpretation of how they reacted. That bare-bones information comes in, under many categories, and then we can look at it.
So they're not locked in a room doing finger-poking. They're actually out on the road being able to do it.
I hear exactly what you're saying, because we hear the same complaints from the men and women out there, sir.