The Importance of Document Scanning for Law Enforcement Agencies

by Olivia Watson Printing manager

Information management is crucial for law enforcement agencies. Right from the regional police department to the national security force, the responsibility for managing the storage for records is vast. Documents like personnel records, IT paperwork, property receipts, inmate records, jail records, payroll and so much more need to be managed day in and out and the number keeps increasing every single day. Just like any business organization, healthcare institution, education institution, law enforcement agencies to find it difficult to manage their huge loads of paperwork manually.

The responsibility that the law enforcement body of every state or country has is immense. Apart from maintaining the law and order, they also need to ensure that justice is served. It is only when they perform efficiently that a state or a country can run properly. In the light of this view, it is imperative that these bodies would want to concentrate only on their core work and not waste manual labor behind organizing and arranging the paperwork that gets accumulated every day in these offices. It does not only require a lot of manual labor to take care of the paperwork but this is extremely time-consuming as well. Also, there are many law enforcement offices that store their paperwork at an off-site location. This makes it extremely difficult to quickly retrieve information whenever there is a need. This not just adds on storage costs but also runs the risk of any information getting lost or misfiled. Transportation of documents between offices and storage custody also questions document security. So, how can law enforcement agencies manage their documents more efficiently?

Getting rid of the paper

By document scanning services, law enforcement bodies can gain entire control over their data and get instant access to all kinds of official documents. These include:

Investigation reports
Accident files
Offense or incident reports
Arrest files
Citations
Warrants and civil records
Detention records
Payroll and invoices
Personnel files
Admission and discharge records
Missing files
Death records

Documents scanning can convert all your paper documents from large format documents to microfilms and microfiche into PDFs and other electronic formats. By eliminating the physical records you will not only be able to retrieve documents faster but will also be able to be more efficient and save dollars that would otherwise be spent on papers, printers, copiers and storing records. Right from large format scanning to scanning small records or files, you can choose bulk records that you need to scan and store digitally.

Automating the workflow

With scanning services, law enforcement agencies can streamline their workflows, thereby saving considerable hours of energy every year. Also, by implementing workflow automation, you are significantly able to reduce manual labor and the potential for human error. When your documents are scanned and stored in a central digital repository, you can access any information whenever you like and from your mobile device, while you are on the go. Also in case of emergencies, you would be able to share the document with another law enforcement officer in some other district or country. Thus, information can be circulated and accessed at the same time by multiple offices all across the country and globe. This helps to expedite the entire process of investigation. The key to working quickly on a case is to get hands-on the right set of information at the earliest and be ensured that they are safely stored somewhere where there is no threat to them being damaged, even from natural disasters or fire or any other kind of emergency. Once you scan your paperwork, you are also able to make edits to them online. You and your team, in fact, can collaborate together and make changes to an existing scanned document. The updated document with the changes then get uploaded and saved in the repository and is accessible by your team. This just not increase collaboration but eliminates the chances of human error or typo as well.

Therefore, just like every other business, for law enforcement agencies as well, document scanning is the need of the hour. It is extremely important that you get rid of all your paperwork so that your entire department can function properly. And this is possible, once you transform all your paperwork into digital information.