New software is expected to bring an area police department up to an improved level of service and efficiency.

The Gardendale City Council voted last month to accept a $134,682 bid from Southern Software Inc. for the Gardendale Police Department. The new software will replace a program from Information Technologies Inc. that the department has been using for 11 years.

Police Chief Mike Walker said the new technology will save dispatchers and assistants hours of time. They currently have to enter all reports into the existing software manually because police officers are still filling out reports on paper.

In addition, they have to retype all reports that go to the state’s Uniform Crime Reporting system.

“We have a lot of duplication and sometimes triplicate work,” Walker said. “An officer will be typing the report directly into the software, so it eliminates these steps. In the long run it’s going to be a work saver for us, and hopefully we can get more people out on the streets.”

In addition, the software will allow the Gardendale Police Department to communicate with other departments that use the same software, including Fultondale.

“Record sharing could benefit all departments,” Walker said. We could see other departments’ information, with permission, of course.”

Walker said he learned the benefit of sharing information when he worked for the Birmingham Police Department.

“Literally, I solved a case in about 30 minutes because of our record system,” he said. “We would have solved it anyway, but it would have taken days or even weeks.”

The existing software expires on Feb. 1. Walker said he hopes to have the new software operational by Jan. 31. He acknowledges there will be growing pains as everyone in the department learns to use new software.

“Anything like this is going to be a very complicated switch-over,” he said. “We’ve been planning since February of last year. It’s not something we’ve gone into lightly. We’ve put a lot of thought into it.”

The department will have to buy some new computers that will support the software. Walker said he plans to use seizure money for the computers.

“In comparison to the software, the hardware isn’t a big expense,” he said.

Walker said the state is already requiring departments to write up all traffic accidents in a program called eCrash.

“We were one of the first departments to become compliant with it,” he said.

He said the state is currently pushing for all reports to be done electronically; in fact, no more paper reports will be provided when the department uses all it now has in stock.

“The state is moving ahead with going electronic with everything,” Walker said. “We want to do that as well to be in compliance.”