PAX Centurion - January / February 2014

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • January/February 2014 • Page 29 From SKYNET on page 27 Cyberyne Systems are here and SKYNET is now fully operational From Things on page 22 A couple of things than to have to rewrite this new standard 15-page towed vehicle re- port over on this system just because I initially clicked the wrong tab. When writing an injured officer report or just a regular 1.1 where an officer was hit, you find that A&B D/W Police Officer is at the top of the drop down box where most charges starting with the letter A are located, likeA&B on fireman. However simple, A&B PO must be searched for way down the bottom end of the scroll down list. Under Assault & Battery on a Police Officer?????? This frigging company does not even follow the alphabet. “Well at least we can now do FIOs electronically” yes, how nice. However under that section under duration of time of the stop. We have ONE TOTWO HOURS available as one choice but not any- time LESS than 15 minutes????? I don’t even talk to the person I’m riding with that much in a shift, forget about during an FIO. Also in the intel report section is where we will now do our Crime Scene 26s, but there is no place to enter your Name or ID other than down in the narrative???? Forget that and homicide will get a shit load of reports from “witnesses not known to the Commonwealth.” “You can write your 1.1 in the car” My ass.You think I am go- ing to sit in a department car, hunched over that MDT, which was positioned in the best possible location, to render it equally out of alignment of both driver and passenger, all the while head down, in situational awareness CodeWhite, swearing and cursing for all to see. Nope, not I. Hell you can not even send the report via MDT to the district printer to print the damn thing.You have to log off, go in the station, log on, re-sign into the multiple layers of Pan’s Labyrinth just to get to your report. Another favorite of this system is its own little version of theY2K virus. Everywhere there is a box with TIME, even one that you may not need because of the nature of the report. This program auto fills in 00:00 in all blank boxes????? That’s right, rather than program this POS to leave time blank, it puts in midnight on all empty time blocks. “Its OK, the validate button will tell you what is wrong” No it won’t, it will just tell you what section the error is located in, “F-You Pig, you find what’s wrong yourself” is the system’s cry. It would be a great tool if it actually took you to the point of error. And lets not forget that this program DOES NOTAUTO SAVE. You have to manually save, OFTEN, because when it goes down, and it will your screwed. It was asked, by many, why are we buying a program that was written for a department that is not this department. This system does not speak our language or follow our procedures. It does not work for us, we work for it. It is a one size fits none. The answer was, we can’t spend any more money having it tailored to fit us. Really, we have to change everything about the way we work to fit the product we are buying, not the other way around. This program will cost a lot more than it will save. Not only in lost production, but in money for toner cartridges for all the printers that will have to print 1.1s, that are foir times longer. In printers and copy machines having to be replaced earlier because their operational lives are sped up copying four copies of all these longer reports for court. In OT for all those extended tours needed to finish what used to be a three line report. It will not get better. It will not get faster. Officers will not clear these reports any quicker, how can you, when you have to included at least a third more information in every report. It will have the exact opposite of its intended goal. In the history of man it has always been this way. If you make something more difficult humans will just avoid doing it at every chance. It is why the Romans built walls. It is why OUI arrests dropped statewide after the paperwork involved was increased. It is why movers have been down across the board since racial profiling forms, and all those extra boxes to check on citations, were added. How can this program possibly HELP the citizens of Boston we serve? It’s going to cost millions, take cops off the streets, and reduce productivity exponentially. SKYNET is here, and Judgment Day is upon us. C arole l und r.e. G ail d e C oste Real Estate Agent Gail.carolelund@gmail.com Office: (781) 769-0122 Cell: (617) 407-9217 Fax: (781) 326-3776 will score the written component. There are definitely issues with the exam. There seems to be some issues with the changes to the exam style relative to the City’s obligation to bargain. The BPPA, in my opinion, has an obligation to ensure our collective rights were not vio- lated and if so, how the City can correct that. I realize a lot of people have spent a lot of money on materials and a lot of time studying. The goal is not to stop the exam or control the way the exam is given. The goal is to ensure all 1,400+ members are allowed to compete in a fair exam process. That applies to this exam as well as others down the road. Hopefully, we are able to work with the other Bargaining Units involved in the process along with the Department and the City to come to an agreement on the exam. Hopefully that happens with plenty of time to spare before the Technical Exam date so people have peace of mind while preparing.