Six Maine State agencies purchase Spillman Technologies

SALT LAKE CITY, March 23, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A conglomerate of six state law enforcement agencies in Maine have purchased Spillman's flagship product, Flex, in November 2015. Maine State Police will be the coordinating agency for the Spillman system along with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, Maine Warden Service, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, Maine Office of State Fire Marshal, and Maine Forest Service. The statewide departments will join 41 other agencies using Spillman software in Maine.

Sgt. Jonathan Wilson of Maine State Police said the feature of the Spillman system he liked most was the opportunity to use the Insight module, which will allow the state departments to share data with the other Spillman agencies in Maine.

"Prior to now, state agencies have not been a part of the data sharing because we had a separate vendor than everyone else in the state," Wilson said. "To have that option now, to me, is a huge asset, so we're going to try and make as much available as possible."

State Police Portfolio Manager Julie Donohue said she expects the Insight module will exceed their expectations and she is excited to tap into that resource.

"There's a lot of communication within Spillman Insight and there's more in there than we could possibly perform with any other technology," she said. "I think we can expect to see more than what we think we will."

Sharing a single system will also allow the state agencies to share data with each other, which they have been unable to do until now. Wilson said often TV shows portray officers querying a computer and getting instant results. In reality, he said, many agencies do not enjoy that type of technology.

"I think it's time for Maine to move ahead in that direction and really start sharing data in the way that citizens expect us to between law enforcement agencies," Wilson said.

Donohue said having access to data from all 47 agencies will make the investigative process much easier, which will increase the safety for residents across the state.

"It will allow that information sharing so that patterns of conduct, suspicious activity or crime can be discovered using predictive analysis and we will have better visibility on violent offenders," she said.

Wilson also said that a shared system will increase officer safety by giving them more information before responding to a call.

"There will be a much larger pool of data to research and find prior contacts with residents or people when you're responding to calls," he said. "To me, that's huge, knowing the guys out there will have real-time access to a particular name or location."

The integration of the Flex system itself was also a compelling asset to the Maine State agencies, Wilson said. He said Maine troopers are excited to be able to backfill data without having to go back in and rewrite important data when creating reports. Right now, their officers are spending too much time writing reports when it would be better for them to be out in the community, he said.

"Anything we can do to minimize that time they have to spend typing data in is something they definitely appreciate," Wilson said.

Prior to using Spillman, the agencies had to keep a separate application in order to store their multimedia, such as pictures or videos, because of the size and type of data they had. Wilson said he is excited to be able to consolidate all their information into the same database so that personnel can look into one case and get everything they need. This will allow them to work smarter and more efficiently, he said.

Spillman Technologies serves more than 1,600 sheriff's offices, police departments, communication centers, correctional facilities, and fire departments nationwide. Spillman specializes in integrated on-premises and cloud-based software solutions, including Computer-Aided Dispatch, Records Management Systems, Mobile Data & Field Reporting, Mapping & GIS, Jail Management Systems, Fire, Data Sharing, Personnel & Resources, and Analytics & Intelligence-Led Policing. For more information about Spillman, visit www.spillman.com.