Story Published on Thursday, October 15, 2009

Sgt. John Hames holds a PDA in one hand and the department’s award in the other. (Jeff Keeling / Johnson City Press)

By Jeff Keeling
Press Business Editor
jkeeling@johnsoncitypress.com

Johnson City police officers have their world at their fingertips these days.

The technology that got them there won this year’s “TechStar” award for development of new technology, one of nine awards presented at the Northeast Tennessee Technology Council’s Seventh Annual TechStar Awards.

Sgt. John Hames initiated a program three years ago to somehow move the Johnson City Police Department to a wireless approach. Chief John Lowry had given the computer-savvy officer a directive to find a solution to a cumbersome paperwork environment that slowed officers down, created space problems due to storage of records and diverted money to old-fashioned data entry in a digital age.

Hames said going paperless in a department that annually generates 25,000 traffic tickets, at least 15,000 incident reports, 4,000 crash reports and up to 8,000 arrests has made a huge difference in terms of cost and effective use of officers’ time.

“It increases efficiency because officers are on the scene for less time and it’s that much less paper coming into the building, so there’s no data entry clerk needed after the ticket comes in,” Hames said.

The PDAs capture signatures of traffic violators and print out tickets immediately, and can be used to call up anyone’s photo through links with the National Crime Information Center and state and local sources. So if a bad guy is pulled over and pretending to be somebody else, Hames said, an officer can figure it out pretty quickly.

The department didn’t replace a retiring records clerk as the program was starting in 2006, and another vacancy since then wasn’t filled, saving tens of thousands of dollars annually.

The department was looking at $4,000-plus “rugged laptops” as it started the program, but settled instead on devices that look like cell phones and cost only $150 apiece, Hames said. About 150 of them are in use today, and Lowry is more than happy.

“The information was always days to weeks behind, (but) now we are live and real-time,” Lowry said. “I think it’s a win-win situation for us and for the public. If we can cut the amount of time we’re spending on paperwork, then it gives us more time to be out here being more proactive in the community.”

In addition to handing out awards and recognizing the region’s leaders in technology, the symposium’s schedule included a variety of sessions in the morning and afternoon geared toward education, implementation and execution of technological resources as related to businesses, both large and small.

The luncheon included a keynote address from Timothy Lindstrom, vice president of operations for Nuclear Fuel Services Inc., of Erwin.

With his naval background, Lindstrom discussed Navy submarine technology from the lens of a career submariner.

“Few people recognize that every submarine in the U.S. Navy has its birthplace in Erwin, Tennessee,” Lindstrom said. “The technology built into these machines is both rugged and cutting edge.”

Other TechStar Award winners were:

• City of Kingsport, Higher Education Center for the Use of Technology in Government Agencies for its “Smart Center Classroom,” a key component of the new center that gives teachers access to a variety of interactive resources to effectively manage the classroom. The award also noted the center’s use of green building technology in its new building.

• Tennessee Technology Center at Elizabethton for Use of Technology in Education. High school juniors and seniors in Elizabethton and Carter County will be one step closer to entering the 12-month practical nurse training program at the Technology Center when they complete an online dosage calculations training class in December.

• Wellmont Health Systems and First Tennessee Human Resource Agency for Use of Technology by Non-profit Group/Agency, Wellmont for a systemwide mammography reporting system and FTHRA for software that enhances its aging in place programs for elderly and disabled residents.

• Tri-Cities Economic Development Alliance for Use of Internet or Web Technologies for “Tri-Cities Prospector,” a Web site developed to assist companies with selecting sites/buildings in the Tri-Cities region.

• Advanced Technical Solutions for Application of Technology within a Small Business for gaining “Authorized Technology Provider” status with Cisco, something that has put ATS in consideration for large contact center projects throughout the Southeast.

• Internetwork Engineering for Application of Technology within a Large Business, for its provision of full wireless coverage using Cisco’s Lightweight Wireless Control System for a healthcare provider with 40,000 employees.

• Connected Tennessee for Community Service for its Computers 4 Kids program, which has placed more than 2,000 computers over the past 18 months in the hands of disadvantaged populations so they can perform basic computing functions and have access to abundant educational, informational, governmental and research resources that are available on the Internet.