Vinton Police Department Bobcop website enhances communication between citizens and police
VINTON–One of the goals Vinton Police Chief Ben Cook has for his department is to keep up with advances in technology. Master Sergeant Jimmy Testerman is contributing to the realization of that goal by the improvements he is making to the Vinton Police Department website.
When officers are up for promotion, they are asked to complete a special project which will benefit the police department or the citizens of Vinton. Testerman chose to do both at once.
Master Sergeant Jimmy Testerman developed and maintains the Vinton Police Department website and online reporting system for citizens.
Concerned that the department wasn’t utilizing the available resources of the Internet to improve communication between the police department and citizens, Testerman began researching the topic “online police reporting” and found Bobcop, a software program developed by a former police office and tailored to police departments. The department subsequently received a grant to adopt the program through the National Rural Law Enforcement Association.
Bobcop is an online citizen reporting system, which also serves as a website. Citizens can communicate directly with the police using their personal computers. This saves the police department time, money, and manpower. When citizens are able to send reports online, an officer does not need to be dispatched to take the report.
Master Sergeant Jimmy Testerman has served on the Vinton Police Force for six and a half years.
The Bobcop system and its website are very user friendly and extensive, allowing citizens to report crimes, complete various forms, request vacation watches for their homes, give feedback to the department on staff, locate court information, and a host of other options.
The Bobcop system makes it much easier for citizens to get in touch with and pass information along to the Vinton Police.
So far, the most popular submissions from citizens are forms for vacation watches of homes and businesses, applications to the Citizen Police Academy, and applications for Citizen Ride Alongs with the police.
Another popular section of the website is Crime View, which enables citizens to enter addresses to view recent crimes in their area.
Testerman is able to tailor various functions on the system directly to Vinton. For example, the Sex Offenders list is limited to those offenders living within the Town of Vinton. The website also includes access to the specific ordinances and municipal codes of the Town.
There is an administrative side to the system which allows police officers to access and share information with one another. Testerman, the site manager, is able to track everything on the website and to assign certain tasks to certain officers.
For instance, any reports that concern animals are sent directly to the Animal Control Officer. Found property reports go to another officer. Reports involving the Crime Stoppers section of the website are routed directly to the officer in charge of a particular case. Any complaints made online about officers are funneled directly to the Chief of Police.
Now that the system is in place, Testerman estimates that he spends about five hours each week checking and updating information on the site. April Alterio, police Administrative Services Coordinator, enters the data and completes the reports for the website.
Even in his off-duty hours, Testerman is able to post to the website from anywhere with Internet access. And he spends a lot of time thinking about how he can tweak the system to make it better.
“Changes are always on my mind,” Testerman said.
Testerman is not a trained computer programmer. Much of what he knows about the Bobcop system and how it works is self-taught.
Testerman has made extensive use of the Internet himself, completing both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice online from Columbia Southern University.
A native of Franklin County, Testerman always knew he wanted to be a police officer. He used his service in the Air Force as a stepping stone to a career in civilian law enforcement.
After leaving the service, Testerman put himself through the Cardinal Police Academy in Salem and accepted a job with the Vinton Police Department soon afterwards. He has been with the department for six and a half years.
In addition to managing the department’s website, Testerman supervises three other officers, and fulfills the basic police duties of detecting and deterring crime in Vinton. However, he views keeping the website going as the best part of his job.
“It’s an important project. We owe it to our citizens. They should be able to do as much as possible online,” Testerman stated.
Testerman added that Bobcop has an even more advanced system in the works ,about to be released. He hopes the public will use the website at https://vinton.bobcop.com/ and take advantage of online reporting. He also encourages citizens to share their ideas of what could be added to the website.
“The possibilities are endless,“ said Testerman.
By Debbie Adams
