MANSFIELD — The Richland County Dog Warden & Adoption Center may add a “shelter case management system” as part of the county’s overall $1.2 million public safety technology for law enforcement and emergency response services.
Dog Warden Missy Houghton, Richland County Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Sweat and Nate McVicar with the county auditor’s IT department met with county commissioners on Tuesday to go over the Chamelon system.
Sweat said the third-party vendor system is needed because Tyler Technologies, the company handling the overall upgrade, doesn’t have a component that meets dog warden office needs.
The program carries a price tag of $37,295, which includes software, server and training. There will also be an annual fee of $11,520, which Houghton said can be absorbed in her department’s budget.
Commissioners in December approved spending about $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project that will provide a comprehensive overhaul of the county’s aging current technology with a system that will provide computer-aided dispatch, records management and jail management.
The sheriff’s office has also committed $250,000 from its Phase Two funding, which comes from revenue generated from wireless phone charges. Those dollars must be spent on projects related to the county’s 911 system, according to county administrator Andrew Keller.
Sweat said selecting a vendor like Chamelon for the dog warden’s office was always in the overall plan, a project now underway with a projected “go live” date in May 2024.
“We actually looked at all of the major, good public safety vendors to see what all they offered. And there is no company that offers all public safety software needs that both the (sheriff’s office) and the dog warden would need at the same time, which is why we had to go with another vendor,” McVicar said.
Houghton, whose current system is largely done on paper, said the system ties together the shelter aspect with her deputies in the field.
“It will track the dog from the moment we encounter it out to the field all the way through the entire shelter process. Deputies can take photos of the dog while it’s out in the field that will track the dog all the way in through the shelter,” she said.
“Medical records can attach to that dog. Owner information can attach to that dog. Adopter information attaches to that dog,” she said, as well as canine medical information.
“We can create records. We can create a history of interactions with the community. We can track problem dogs (and) interactions that we have with these dogs, how frequently we’re interacting with some of these dogs and areas that we need to pay more attention to,” Houghton said.
Sweat said it’s technology desperately needed in the dog warden’s office.
“I can tell you from the time that I spent helping out the dog warden and before Missy came in (in 2019), when she says paper and pencil, that’s probably rudimentary at best for what they have out there,” Sweat said.
Commissioners were receptive to the idea, though no vote was taken. Keller will bring necessary paperwork for an ARPA expenditure to the third-party vendor.
“We knew these contracts were billed into the proposal, as Capt. Sweat said from day one,” Keller said.
“We needed to enter into the contract with Tyler Tech to get the ball rolling and also to secure pricing in December with the understanding that these would follow,” Keller said, adding there would also be a $17,000 related expense with CDW.
When announcing the overall plan in December, Sweat praised the approval by commissioners.
“This is a huge advancement forward for public safety in Richland County and it shows a continued investment by the Board of Commissioners to move our public safety in the right direction and get us to where we need to be and where we should be,” Sweat said.
“Again, just a reminder, it’s a complete public safety (system). It’s not just the sheriff’s Office. It’s 911, it’s all the county fire departments that have been included in that.”
