The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

HALwyrfiEGION SPECIALISlNG IN RESIDENTIAL PESI MANAGEMENT Tel: 905.876.1941 Follow us on: D @infoHRPC serviceOhaltonregionpestcontrol.com www.haltonregionpestcontrol.com Halton Regional Police (HRP) are looking to upgrade and streamline the way it manages its training records. According to Deputy Chief Bob Percy, the systems the service is currently using are inef- ficient and ineffective when it comes to meet- ing Provincially-legislated standards. “The bandages are now wearing off and the box is now empty," Percy said. “We need to look for something different." With this in mind, the HRP board recently ap- proved the execution of a single source con- tract to purchase talent management system software from British Columbia-based soft- ware company, GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc. However, the upgrade comes at a price. The software is quoted at $100,000 with an addi- tional cost of $50,000 to acquire the services of Buchanan Technologies, a Mississauga- based IT consulting firm, to help implement the program. According to HRP Chief Stephen Tanner, the price tag is well worth it. "We often talk about the expense of informa- Halton police eyeing $150,000 software upgrade By Ian Holroyd SPECIAL TO THE CHAMPION tion technology and systems and software to support what we do on a daily basis," Tanner explained, “and this has been an area of con- cern for quite a long period of time." Under the Police Services Act of Ontario, there are a variety of training courses officers must receive. In addition, police must be able to retain records of all training and be able to make them available to the Ministry of Com- munity Safety in the event of an audit. In 2003, the HRP began using Microsoft Ac- cess, a database management system, to keep track of its service firearms. in 2010, a second Microsoft Access database was created to track training records and a third was implemented to assist in preparing the annual Use of Force Report. A HRP board report suggests this system is "no longer suitable for operational needs”and the program it uses is at "end of life." The report states the prospect of data cor- ruption and lack of application dependability puts the department at risk of non-compli- ance with regulatory guidelines. It also rec- ommends a "comprehensive and integrated approach to the management of training re- cords."