Joplin Police roll out new tech "Pro Suite"

JOPLIN, Mo. — A substantial tech upgrade is helping Joplin police keep the city safer, more quickly and efficiently.

The Joplin Police Department is nearing the end of an upgrade that touches on nearly every aspect of city law enforcement.

"The system covers your dispatching center, CAD, mobile CAD, which is what our officers use out of the vehicles, jail records, administration, investigations. So, it covers every area of the department," said Brian Lewis, JPD Asst. Chief.

The new system, called "Pro Suite," primarily deals with computer-aided dispatch and the records management system. It streamlines processes that had been glitchy, like court access.

"Everyone had to transition to Missouri courts. At that point, our electronic citation module was not functional with our old system, so we had to seek out an additional vendor to provide that patchwork."

The new system integrated 600,000 name records from the last 30 years. It also streamlined evidence storage, making it easier to access videos, still images, and audio recordings.

"Recently, we've had to burn those files onto disks or thumb drives and then make copies for requests from attorneys, from prosecuting. So, those, those practices are a little more streamlined now. Now it involves a link, and the evidence is up in the cloud," said Lewis.

"Pro Suite" went live at JPD earlier this year. They are still working on a final fix, which will allow 911 calls to transfer seamlessly between the Joplin, Jasper County, and Newton County dispatch systems.