A bill making its way through Pittsburgh City Council would allow the Bureau of Police to build a software system for filing digital versions of daily activity reports.
Each officer currently writes his or her daily reports by hand, which costs time and makes research difficult, according to John Warren, executive assistant to acting Pittsburgh police chief Regina McDonald.
At its Wednesday committee meeting, council gave preliminary approval to legislation that would pay $110,000 to a private firm to develop software that officers would use to file digital reports. Once it's up and running, the system would cost an additional $50,000 per year in maintenance costs and licensing fees.
While the bill only covers daily activity reports for now, Warren told council that the police bureau eventually hopes to expand the digital system to include all other manual paperwork.
"We see it bringing in other reports, such as traffic stop reports, such as field contact reports," said Warren.
After garnering unanimous approval from council on Wednesday, the bill moves on to a final vote Tuesday.
