New Orleans police to move record-keeping to cloud

Law enforcement officers in New Orleans will soon be able to access records, data and receive real-time alerts through their cell phones and laptops via a new cloud-based tool that city plans to install this year.

The Orleans Parish Communication District, the public safety answering point for all emergency communications in New Orleans, on Monday announced it will transition to a digital records system offered by Hexagon, a Swedish technology company that produces software and sensors. The new system, called HxGN OnCall Records, will take roughly 12 months to install and integrate with the agency’s multiple emergency divisions, according to the company.

“We are very excited to take advantage of this state-of-the-art records management technology,” Tyrell Morris, the communication district’s executive director, said in a press release. “HxGN OnCall Records is expected to provide OPCD and City of New Orleans public safety agencies with an easily manageable, user-intuitive records system that will scale and configure to meet agency needs, including the quick and easy execution of duties such as administrative tasks, investigative functions and resource management.”

The system will enable OPCD researchers to develop data visualizations from data collected by officers, the company said in the press release, and all data stored collected by the agency will be backed up on a Microsoft Azure cloud.

Hexagon’s other government users include the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, the company said.