I'm sentenced to a few weeks of light duty largely working on small projects for our firearms program. One of the deficiencies that we have noted is that we are tracking our firearms inventory via an ancient spreadsheet. I am curious if any of you know how your agency is doing this. Looking for software packages and other ideas. PM is fine and I can gladly provide work email.
We are currently using spreadsheets and an ancient card file system. Problematic for a number of reasons, but also just cumbersome for a 2000+ sworn agency with handguns, rifles, shotguns, less lethal launchers, suppressors, etc. When I took over this office, I looked into a modern quartermaster system, that would hopefully also include records tracking for training, quals, etc. Maybe even a reservation system for all of the above. I looked at a lot of systems.Originally Posted by DaBigBR
By far, we were most impressed with Armorerlink. Had everything we needed, and then some. Cloud based. Cost when I wrote it up was $1 per user per month. I'd highly recommend taking a look at them. I wrote it up.....denied. No funding. Then a Deputy Chief who was super into Tech stuff had me to submit it again. Same guy denied it again. I just heard that our civilian Technology "Director" has come up with the idea for a high tech quartermaster system for the range. I'm happy to let him take credit for his brilliant innovation.
Formerly known as xpd54.
The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect the opinions or policies of my employer.
www.gunsnobbery.wordpress.com
We use our records management system - New World. It has an equipment assignment/tracking module.
Formerly known as xpd54.
The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect the opinions or policies of my employer.
www.gunsnobbery.wordpress.com
This is roughly where we are now, I am finding out. I'm "just" an officer (and firearms instructor) and have found out that our admin is working off of a spreadsheet that goes back literal decades. Inspection forms are done by hand, scanned, and dumped in a folder. Qualification records are in another set of spreadsheets. Etc.
I will be very curious to see where using dedicated software goes for us. We recently switched to Taser 7, and as part of that, use Axon's Evidence.com to assign and track inventory. I find it extremely efficient as an instructor assigning these things to folks and the sergeant who oversees it looks the interface, but I've had a lot of hand-wringing from the admin about wanting it all on a spreadsheet somewhere. It's probably mostly because they don't want to have to remember their Evidence.com credentials, but I can't help but feeling like I'm working with my grandma and she thinks that if she buys something online, somebody is going to steal her identity.
I'll ask a friend who was the Rangemaster before me. He started using a software program called????? Pro. I thought it was cumbersome and glitchy. I used a large 3 ring binder and each weapon issued to an officer was a sheet with the weapon details and their signature. They got the same paper as a copy and there was a master list in the back of the book with all weapons and serial numbers with assigned officer name so I could look up the name and what weapon they were assigned or ser number and who was assaigned it quickly. A copy was kept at the back desk to sort out who left their weapon in a gun locker. SWAT commander signed for all SWAT weapons not directly assigned and was responsible for the weapons. He used the same assignment system. Each car had an assigned shotgun and the daily vehicle sheet required checking it and that it was the assigned gun and that it was present. All other guns in the armory were assigned to the Rangemaster until otherwise assigned. 200 officers, 35 Reserves and a little over 300 weapons total. I'm not sure if that would work with 2000 LEO size.
Probably should have posted agency size info.
Roughly 85 sworn. Theoretically, everybody is issued a pistol (personally owned is gaining steam and many have elected to turn them in). Some personnel (detectives and admin) get a full-size and a compact.
Between lethal and less-lethal we've got maybe 50-60 shotguns. The department only owns 22 rifles (personally owned program is very popular).
All told we're probably talking about 200-220 total firearms.
My agency uses Armorerlink. My only interface is as an officer, so I see none of the back end (or cost). But it is pretty slick. All our weapons have QR codes so they can be scanned quickly to record quals, inventory and check in/out. Plus we sign up for classes, etc.
At 1100 officers plus reserves, we were limping along with an old spreadsheet and card file system.
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Do you recall what a "user" was? Curious if they're talking about individuals that will be accessing the software or number of gun-toting personnel. I am intending to contact them directly, but I'm doing the dance of not really having anything to do with money and not wanting to invest time in a solution that "we" won't be willing to spend money on. $1/month at 85 sworn is still only a shade over $1000 a year.
An individual officer. It comes with an App for your smartphone, which allows officers to sign up for training/quals/ armorer appointments,etc. Weapons are QR coded by metallic decal or laser engraving. I recommend you get ahold of Joe Ganete, their CEO. Good dude, and he'll come out and demonstrate the whole system for you guys.
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