Where's My Police Blotter?

The new  may improve communication between callers and dispatchers, but at the moment, we're experiencing some interference when it comes to our police blotter. 

The College Park Patch has been posting a since its inception nearly one year ago. The blotter is compiled from data sent to us and other media outlets from the Prince George's County Police. 

However, it appears our crime blotter has gone missing. The culprit behind its mysterious disappearance is a delay in setting up the computer system at the new call center, a $36.5 million facility that boasts state-of-the-art design and technology. 

However, new technology comes with a cost. 

"With every new piece of technology, people have to get trained on it," said police spokesman Cpl. Larry Johnson. "I wouldn’t expect the crime data for at least another couple of weeks." 

Charlynn Flaherty, the county's public safety communications director, said shifting operations to the new center is a huge undertaking, and other issues simply took precedence over disseminating data. 

"It's being implemented in phases, with the life safety issues going first, which is dispatch and processing calls to the police, fire, sheriff, and the municipalities," she said. "The [records management system] function is not life safety, so it was not implemented immediately." 

Flaherty confirmed that the data should be ready for dispatch in the next few weeks.