Swedish police save money by automating processes

In order to lower costs and streamline processes, the Swedish National Police Board is implementing two new systems to automate its firearms registry and case management practices. The police board expects to realize $13 million in savings over the next five years on an initial $8 million, two-year investment.

The firearms registry, which tracks approximately 750,000 people and 2.1 million weapons, will contain detailed information on all firearms registered throughout Sweden. It's designed to speed access to and manage information about firearms and weapons holders for police officers.

The police board's new case management system, which handles more than 100,000 summons annually, is designed to automating the summons process currently being processed manually. The system will result in faster processing of cases and standardization of procedures, which in turn will reduce the number of cancelled court cases and ultimately reduce costs.

Scheduled for implementation in early 1999, the systems are based on Floware workflow technology from BancTec's Plexus division, combined with PAXEnterprise document management software from Swedish company IDA Systems. The systems utilize a three-layer client server architecture, using Tuxedo as TPmonitor to smooth the integration with the police board's other systems. The platform can be extended to other police applications and other customer environments where high volume processes can be made more efficient and effective, according to Kevin Roper, VP of Worldwide Systems for BancTec