Technology helps connect police and community

We pull our hair out (those of us who have any left) every time we learn of yet another government agency squirreling away behind a cloak of secrecy to conduct the people’s business.

So it’s a breath of fresh air when we find a public agency that breaks new ground in its effort to bring more eyes to its work.  Recently that occurred in Stoughton, where people who want to read the cop log or view a police report no longer have to go to the station.

If they have a smart phone and a certain app, they can walk up to a Stoughton police cruiser, take a picture of a barcode decal on the vehicle’s fender and use that image to link into the police department’s website.
From there they can purchase police reports, access police logs and use the department’s Text-a-Tip program.

“Our push is to get as much information into the hands of the public as possible,” said Police Chief Paul J. Shastany, who added that Stoughton is one of the first police departments in the country to offer the service.
For most people in a community, their only connection to their police department is seeing a police cruiser on the road or parked somewhere.

Realizing this, Shastany saw an opportunity to use that brief encounter to the department’s advantage.
“The cruisers are rolling billboards, they give out information,” Shastany said. “Our business is an information business. Usually we take it all in, this way we can give back.”

Quick Response codes have only recently begun emerging for public use in advertisements and at retail stores, where customers can use them to get more information on a product.  Shastany said the department is looking for ways to expand the use of QR codes, including eventually placing them on business cards and on “Wanted” posters.

It’s a welcome example of a community seeing what tools people are using to communicate and employing them to help them better understand the services they pay for with their taxes.

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