Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau delivered her third State of the Sheriff’s Office address to the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce this afternoon. In it, the sheriff highlighted achievements the office has made.
On Mental Health Intervention, the sheriff’s office began performing mental health screenings at the point of arrest, which Pamerleau says led to nearly a quarter of arrested persons needing intervention.
"Law enforcement officers from across our county screened more than 21,000 arrested persons and found almost 4,700, or 22 percent, screened positive for some level of mental illness," Pamerleau says.
The sheriff’s office has implemented a new record management system, or RMS, to process reports. Pamerleau says the office is currently in the 1980s and police reports can take about two weeks to be completed due to antiquated processing. Currently deputies have to write out reports.
"At the end of the day, these are 'sneaker-netted' to central records. Then, what I affectionately call our little old ladies in tennis shoes -- they fat-finger those reports into a DOS system. So, it takes all the human interaction where, if it can be entered one time, that's it," she says.
Pamerleau says that system can also cross-match reports which can link offenders to multiple crimes in some circumstances.
