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Police push for modern records management system to reduce manual work and improve reporting
Summary
Wausau police said their current records management product (Central Square Superion suite, implemented 2018) is dated and requires manual data entry to meet incident-based reporting; the department flagged a 2028 replacement planning window and estimated the city's share could be an additional $40,000to $50,000 per year.
A police records official told the CIP committee the department's records management and evidence systems are aging and increasingly time-consuming to use for modern incident-based reporting. The current product is part of a consortium implementation with Marathon County and CCIT and was implemented in 2018; the presenter said the software was originally developed earlier in the decade and has limited native support for the federal incident-based reporting standard.
"We're running into some of those things ... it's dated, and it shows," the records presenter said. Staff explained the current system requires officers and records staff to perform extensive manual data entry, which reduces efficiency, complicates training and slows reliable public reporting and open-records responses.
City and county IT (CCIT) currently pay about $225,000 a year for the countywide product; new quotes for modern cloud-based systems range about $50,000to $75,000 more per year overall, staff said. The city's incremental share, if the consortium pursued a replacement, could be roughly $40,000to $50,000 per year as a starting estimate, the presenter said.
Staff proposed starting cross-jurisdictional conversations among the city, the county and CCIT this fall so the city could have more concrete options for CIP planning in 2027and a potential selection by 2028.
Why it matters: an updated records management system integrated with digital evidence and CAD could reduce manual labor, speed investigations and make public reporting more reliable; the city will need to budget both implementation and ongoing subscription costs if a consortium or replacement is chosen.
