New Reporting Requirements Shouldn't Mean New Administrative Work
New Reporting Requirements Shouldn't Mean New Administrative Work
For law enforcement departments, a new state reporting requirement can create far more work than the regulation itself might suggest.
New information may need to be captured. Existing processes may need to change.
Reports may need to be compiled differently. And when the department's records management system can't easily accommodate those changes, the solution can become another spreadsheet, another manual process, or another place staff have to enter and maintain information.
That's an administrative burden departments don't need. When regulation changes, your Records Management System (RMS) should be able to change with it.
Pennsylvania Brings the Issue Into Focus
New traffic-stop reporting requirements in Pennsylvania provide a timely example.
Under Pennsylvania Act 18, qualifying law enforcement departments are now required to collect and report additional information related to self-initiated traffic stops. For local law enforcement, the requirement applies to municipal police departments serving populations of more than 5,000 and regional police departments serving a combined population of more than 5,000.
Pennsylvania isn't alone in requiring departments to collect and report information associated with law enforcement stops. Other states, including Virginia and Illinois, have their own requirements, processes, and reporting structures.
The specific requirements vary. The operational challenge is much more consistent:
How does a department accommodate a new reporting requirement without creating an entirely new administrative process to support it?
When the RMS Can't Adapt, the Work Goes Somewhere Else
When a new reporting requirement isn't easily accommodated within the RMS, departments still have to find a way to meet it.
For some, that can mean turning to spreadsheets to capture and track the required information. The immediate problem may be solved, but a new administrative process has been created alongside the department's records system.
Now staff may have information to enter or transfer, another workflow to maintain, and another source to reconcile when it's time to report. What started as a new reporting requirement becomes ongoing administrative work.
And that burden doesn't disappear after the first report is submitted. The process has to be repeated every time information is collected and every time reporting is required.
The better question isn't whether a department can build a workaround. It's whether it should have to.
Reporting Requirements Don't Stand Still
State and federal reporting requirements evolve. What a department is required to capture, maintain, and report today may not look exactly the same several years from now.
That makes configurability more than a convenience in a modern records management system.
An RMS should give departments the flexibility to adapt their records processes as requirements evolve – not force them to create separate processes every time something changes.
Configurable fields and structured workflows can allow required information to become part of the existing records process. Flexible data exports can then support state reporting without requiring staff to maintain an entirely separate system solely for that purpose.
The result is a simpler approach: Capture the information within the existing workflow. Maintain it within the RMS. Use it when it's time to report.
Your RMS Should Reduce the Administrative Burden
Reporting requirements are ultimately the department's responsibility. But the technology supporting the department can make meeting those requirements easier – or considerably harder.
Coreforce RMS is designed with the flexibility to adapt as reporting needs evolve.
Configurable fields and structured workflows help departments incorporate required information into existing records processes, while flexible data exports support changing state reporting requirements.
That means departments can spend less time building workarounds around their technology and more time using technology that works with the way they need to operate.
Because when reporting requirements change, the answer shouldn't automatically be another spreadsheet.
The regulation changed. Your RMS should be able to change with it.
New reporting mandates don't have to mean new spreadsheets. Here's how Coreforce RMS adapts.
