Tulsa Police Department Plans To Update 42-Year-Old Record System

The Tulsa Police Department is planning to undergo a major computer upgrade in the next year.

They say this process will streamline their reporting system and even help make officers' jobs safer.

Tulsa Police Department says this upgrade is years in the making.

Right now, their system is so old that it's difficult for them to even run a records check on a license plate number, so this system will not only speed the process up, but it will also make their jobs easier every day.

"We're going to have immediate information, versus having to go to different sources to find that information," said Tulsa Police Cpl. Jennifer Murphy.

Cpl. Jennifer Murphy says right now officers have to log in to several different systems in order to access information. She says it usually takes at least 10 minutes to log on.

“It may take us awhile to log in to be able to see the call notes that would be very important to know," said Cpl. Murphy.

Tulsa Police Department is upgrading the software that officers use to write police reports.

This system also allows them to see how often they've been to a home and view a suspect's history.

This system hasn't been updated since 1977.

“Star Wars was new at the movies, Jimmy Carter was the new president, Microsoft had nine employees,” said Major Matt Kirkland.

Major Kirkland says right now if they run someone's name officers get anywhere from 10 to 100 potential matches.

“Then I have to look each one up and determine is that’s the person I'm looking for," said Major Kirkland.

With the new system, they will even be able to see mugshots and criminal history, which will make responding to calls safer.

“We're going to have better access and quicker access to the information about people that we already know about,” said Major Kirkland.

Right now, several people are working behind the scenes to input about 40 million records into the new system.

But ultimately, TPD knows this system will be a major upgrade not just for them but also for people they serve.

"Less time spent on the technical difficulties of writing a report which hopefully means more attention to details in the report and more time when the heads not down in the computer and the eyes are up looking around," said Major Kirkland.

This software will not only change the records system for TPD, but it will also impact Municipal Courts.

They hope to have it completely in place by December of 2020.