Author: Tom Doyle
Publisher: Cushing Systems Inc.
Date Published: April 8, 2022
House Watch
The administrative and reporting work of law enforcement personnel can be daunting and are certainly under appreciated by the general public. One gauge of the effectiveness of a Software solution is its ability to simplify and minimize this work so that law enforcement personnel can spend more time policing and less time reporting.
Cushing’s House Watch system in PSIMS Anywhere (PSA) is a module designed to streamline the process of monitoring citizens’ homes while they are away in a manner that tracks and reports activity with a few clicks of the mouse
House Watch Attempts is a new table/feature in PSIMS Anywhere (PSA) that adds on to the current House Watch Feature. This feature is for agencies that wish to create attempts for house checks, rather than creating a new call for each check. Agencies that wish to use this feature will need to have the UseHouseWatchAttempts
XML tag in the Defaults/Agency section of the Master.xml file. This feature is defaulted to false, so any agency without this tag in the Master.xml file will default to false.
<UseHouseWatchAttempts>
true
</UseHouseWatchAttempts>
The default for the House Watch will keep the ‘Make Watch Call’ green button that will create a new call each time the officer clicks on the button.
If the agency chooses to use the House Watch Attempt feature, the button will be blue and contain the text ‘House Check’. This will open a pop-up window that will contain a drop down with the following options:
- Clear
- Open Door
- Persons Present
- Suspicious Vehicle
NOTE: After clicking the ‘House Check’ button, the units status will change to the default on-scene status with the status text ofHouse Watch
(e.g. On Scene(House Watch)
or On Scene: House Watch
).
If the unit chooses the option Clear
, the submit button will contain the text Submit Watch Attempt
The pop up will disappear and a green banner will notify the unit that the House Watch Attempt was successfully completed, will remain on the House Watch page, and unit status will return to Available
.
If the unit chooses any other option, the button will contain the text Create Watch Call
,
After clicking the ‘Create Watch Call’ button, a call will be created, the pop up will disappear and the same green banner will appear to let the unit know the watch was created successfully. If signed in as a unit, the call notification pop up will appear and give the unit the option to view the call, normal call protocols are followed from here. If not signed in as a unit, the call will still be created, but the screen will return to the House Watch List.
This feature will allow agencies to keep track of each time a residence on the House Watch list is checked without creating a separate call for each check. The checks will be logged into House Watch Attempts table in the database to keep track of when and how many times a residence is checked and the result of the check.
If your department is interested in how our NIBRS compliant PSA product can streamline your workflow, please fill out our contact form and we will be in touch.