Somerset County Jail, E. Madison, ME
Thank you for the opportunity to field test the G.A.R.D. system. When Somerset County Jail was built in 2007 a Request for Proposals on a radio monitoring and recording system was sent out and at the time the costs of these systems was prohibitive. As with any modem correctional facility the radio communications system had to be engineered and modified as the facility came on line to ensure adequate communications throughout the facility. This entailed the installation of a retransmission system. At the time, the bidders on the radio recording systems cited the multi-frequencies associated with the retransmission system, the discrete frequency low powered radios used, and the filled re-bared concrete construction used as driving the high cost of their proposed systems. Additionally, they recommended that this recording system be located on top of the building or outside of the secure perimeter which would have added additional security risk to the daily operation of the jail. As a result no system was purchased.
I heard of your system literally on the news and it piqued my interest. It was quickly apparent during our initial conversation that both John and you had a thorough understanding of radio systems and how to record them. There was very little jargon just a few simple questions about frequencies used and a very positive focus that the G.A.R.D. system can do the recording in a simple easily managed way. The presentation was oriented to: not what great and glorious things that the G.A.R.D. system could do, but that it was a simple, rugged tool for supervisors, managers, and administrators to use in managing, analyzing, and documenting facility operations.
We have used it now on 5 separate Use of Force incidents and 2 Medical Emergencies. The system has proven to be a quick and easy method of:
The install of the system was quick and easy 15 minutes. Along with the 30 minute tutorial the system was up and running from within the secure perimeter and within an office with re-bared concrete walls. The orientation was given to 3 of the expected 12 supervisors and the rest of the supervisors were able to utilize the system easily without orientation or training, simply by clicking what intuitively seemed right.
The only recommendation that Somerset County Jail developed was to add the radio identifier from our coded radios to the file name and provide a tool within the software that would allow the quick printing of the file directories and file names as a comma delimited file, which then could be used in reports or for spreadsheet analysis.
Sean P. Maguire
CPT, Assistant Jail Administrator
I heard of your system literally on the news and it piqued my interest. It was quickly apparent during our initial conversation that both John and you had a thorough understanding of radio systems and how to record them. There was very little jargon just a few simple questions about frequencies used and a very positive focus that the G.A.R.D. system can do the recording in a simple easily managed way. The presentation was oriented to: not what great and glorious things that the G.A.R.D. system could do, but that it was a simple, rugged tool for supervisors, managers, and administrators to use in managing, analyzing, and documenting facility operations.
We have used it now on 5 separate Use of Force incidents and 2 Medical Emergencies. The system has proven to be a quick and easy method of:
- Establishing a timeline that is more accurate than the officer logs
- Verifying that required actions occurred i.e. Emergency was called; responses by various required staff i.e. medical, supervisor, investigator, etc.
- Verifying that various actions done by staff without access to the automated log occurred.
- Providing supervisors the means to clean-up staffs radio transmissions
- The monthly usage reports were used to verify facility operational tempo over time as part of a staffing and time study of facility operations.
The install of the system was quick and easy 15 minutes. Along with the 30 minute tutorial the system was up and running from within the secure perimeter and within an office with re-bared concrete walls. The orientation was given to 3 of the expected 12 supervisors and the rest of the supervisors were able to utilize the system easily without orientation or training, simply by clicking what intuitively seemed right.
The only recommendation that Somerset County Jail developed was to add the radio identifier from our coded radios to the file name and provide a tool within the software that would allow the quick printing of the file directories and file names as a comma delimited file, which then could be used in reports or for spreadsheet analysis.
Sean P. Maguire
CPT, Assistant Jail Administrator
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