BENNETTSVILLE — Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office [MCSO] had the pleasure of hosting South Carolina’s seventh district Congressman Russel Fry Thursday to present MCSO with $868,040, which is part of federal Community Project Funding. The purpose of the funding secured by Fry is to assist the MCSO, and the county’s law enforcement as a whole, modernize and streamline its technology, as well as upgrading critical law enforcement equipment.
Funding secured by Fry will provide Marlboro County law enforcement with six new patrol cars, and the MCSO with body cameras, ballistic vests, a new backup generator, and new radios and technology systems, like 32 mobile tablets or Mobile Data Terminals [MDT], that the MCSO anticipates saving the office time and money.
Two of the six new patrol cars included in the funding are specifically assigned to the town of Clio.
Fry said, “Getting vehicles for municipalities in small towns in this county is huge. And they need it,” he added, “You can’t chase bad guys if you don’t have a car that’s going to get you where you’re going.”
The 32 mobile tablets the MCSO are set to receive will allow law enforcement to share information across departments and agencies, increasing the speed at which information is shared with a deputy who is out in the field, no longer necessitating their need to return to the office to fill out a report or wait for a dispatch service to obtain and relay information, such as a warrant or arrest records.
MDT’s are part of the Oracle Public Safety Suite, a comprehensive law enforcement platform designed to modernize records management, field operations, jail management, evidence tracking, and inter-agency information sharing. The system offers deputies real-time access to records, warrant information, case reports, property and evidence management.
Regarding the funding he secured providing technology upgrades for the MCSO through Oracle, Fry said, “People want safe streets, they want safe communities, and this system helps get people what they want.”
Thanks to the efforts of the congressman, Marlboro County is now leading the way in being the first South Carolina county to receive Oracle technology.
“It’s incredibly cool that you can take a technological advancement and put it in Marlboro County to be a model maybe for the rest of the state,” Fry said.
County leaders, Oracle representatives, and law enforcement officials emphasized Thursday that the technology provided by the new funding represents a significant modernization effort intended to improve officer efficiency, public safety, and operational effectiveness while reducing costs for Marlboro County taxpayers.
Fry called the new tablets a gamechanger for MCSO, but emphasized the technology is not a luxury but a necessity. He said, “These are things that I think law enforcement needs. It’s not a wish list; it’s something that they actually need to do their job.”
Pointing out the technology will finally bring MCSO up to date, he added that he expects the tablets to help deputies “put bad guys behind bars, and get back out on the street and keep doing the job that they signed up for.”
Fry, who says he is always willing to aid law enforcement, added “If we can be there for our communities and help the state of South Carolina … we’re going to do it every day and twice on Sundays.”
David Castro, a former dispatcher and public safety software specialist, explained to attendees Thursday about the Oracle platform’s capabilities.
He described mobile tablets and dashboard technology as “more of a full suite; [where] everything’s connected, everything’s talking to each other.”
By “talking to each other” Castro means deputies can now access records and case management, warrant searches, task management, jail management, property and evidence tracking, BOLO (Be On the Lookout) notifications, dashboard analytics, mobile report writing, voice-to-text narratives, NCIC/state database integrations and Inter-agency information sharing — all from their patrol cars.
“The goal is arming our people with the right software tools to be able to do their job and serve the community,” Castro said, continuing, “Having these functionalities in the vehicle are huge.”
He said the new technology also allows law enforcement to communicate active warrants, arrest histories, jail information, known associates and alerts, and officer safety information. Deputies can upload files, documents related to a case, photographs from the scene and identifying descriptors such as tattoos or piercings.
Rather than returning to the office to complete reports or access information, officers can work from the field using ruggedized tablets. Alan Ober, a representative with Oracle, said the MCSO’s subscription with their technology company includes hardware support.
“We actually provide a ruggedized tablet and the mounting equipment for the tablet as part of that subscription,” said Ober, adding that if a device is damaged, “We overnight a brand new one to you, no questions asked… Every three years, you refresh all those tablets… at no additional cost.”
Additional MDT features include running records checks, viewing warrants, accessing criminal histories, completing incident reports, uploading photographs, managing evidence chains of custody, adding supplemental forms and attachments and dictating reports using voice-to-text.
Sheriff Larry McNeil said he is looking forward to the new technology advancements helping his employees save time, while also being more efficient in their professional roles.
He said, “The more efficient we are, the better job that we can do… For us, [this technology is] new. For the rest of the world, it’s not new, but for us, it’s new.”
McNeil said he thinks having MDTs at his deputies’ fingertips will save time. He explained, “They don’t have to come here to get their work done. They can do it where they are, they can stay in their area, they can stay in their routes — that saves a lot of time.”
The Sheriff also emphasized replacing existing record systems would have been unavoidable, with or without the grant.
“Had we not got this grant in December, we would have still been responsible… to replace the systems that we have now,” he said, which he explained is saving Marlboro County taxpayers a substantial amount.
“We’re talking about $800,000 that the taxpayers won’t have to spend,” McNeil said, adding that he hopes the innovative technology will open opportunities for recruitment.
“This isn’t just to benefit us, but benefits the county as a whole,” he said.