Police taking their notes electronically - second service in Canada to do it this way.

By Staff

August 25th, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The HRPS is the first police agency in Ontario, and only the second in Canada, to transition their members from traditional paper-based notes to electronic notes.

The days of hand written notes for Halton Regional Police are coming to an end. And yes – we know the police officer is American – haven’t been able to find a local police officer we can connect with.

Note-taking in the policing sector has not evolved in over 100 years, and we are proud to be adopting technology that the newest generation of officers expect and want,” says Deputy Chief Roger Wilkie.  “This is just one of the latest ways the HRPS is striving to optimize effectiveness and efficiency by purposefully harnessing innovative technology.”

Approximately one-third of HRPS sworn members have already received extensive training and successfully transitioned to eNotes using the Smart Squad application by Faction Four Systems Inc on Service-issued cellphones. All sworn members will be fully trained by early 2022.

The HRPS eNotes application has been customized and optimized to contain features that the Service recognizes as key to policing operations. As a result, it provides unparalleled efficiencies to officers on patrol. Officers are now more mobile, no longer constrained by limitations of paper notes or tied to the computer in their cruisers. Officers can now access and add to police databases and record systems from anywhere. Further, eNotes equips officers with a secure means to obtain audio statements and take supplementary photos or recordings. All of these new functions are bolstered by heightened transparency and credibility to officer notes, with time-stamped entries and increased legibility.

It will be interesting to see how this works out when a police officer has to take the stand to testify – will his (or her)  enotes be shown on a large computer screen where anyone in the court room can read them.

 

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1 comment to Police taking their notes electronically – second service in Canada to do it this way.

  • The real issue on police notes that we have run up against in our pro bono representatio as agents of the affected party or as “friends of the court” were the notes compiled at the time of the incident or some time after (meaning after shift has been finished). Hopefully computeri\ed notes will have a built in alert if notes have been altered in any way or entered way after event. The honesty of the notes rather than how they are compiled is what is important but kudos to Halton Regional Police Services for the efficiencies this should bring.