What I found when we looked closer
Boston is a small Thomas County city in south Georgia, incorporated in 1870, with 1,207 residents on 2.2 square miles. US 84 runs through town between Thomasville and Quitman.
A few officers handle every call and write every report, so documentation time comes straight out of patrol.
Following one report through the building
The first thing we do with a new department is trace where a report goes after the officer hits submit. Here, it passes through 3 hands:
- 1Officer
- 2Chief review
- 3Thomas County court
Every one of those readers needs the same facts from the first draft. That is what shaped what we built.
What we built for them
In a department this small, every hour saved on writing goes back to patrol.
What we're watching
These are the signals that will tell us whether it's working here:
- Hours per week returned to patrol
- Reports finished before end of shift
Figures on this page come from the department's own published materials. We only publish Code Four results after the department reviews them.
