The Porter Police Department has its document records for the past 12 years digitally scanned, but there’s no way to search them.

There soon will be, not just for the police but for all other Porter town departments, too.

The Town Council on Tuesday authorized spending up to $38,000 for Bolt Ltd. Inc. of Elkhart to provide the software, set-up, scanning and training for a fully integrated document management system.

The annual cost will be $4,078 for maintenance and updates.

Council president Michele Bollinger said eventually town documents, drawings and maps from when Porter was incorporated in 1908 to the present will be scanned. Object/character recognition software then would allow any minutes, ordinances or drawings to be searched for key words such as “Porter Beach” and retrieved.

Confidential information would remain separate from the general search function and not be shared unless authorized.

Police chief James Spanier and Porter director of engineering Matt Keiser both said the Bolt system will benefit town employees, department heads and the public.

Bollinger said the town did not buy the $18,000 web-based module at this time that would have allowed the public to access records online, but persons seeking information through a department or at the town hall should find their questions answered faster.

Bollinger said it also will save significant time in-house to use the key-word search function to locate information rather than reading through pages and pages of minutes or even having to ask previous board members what their recollections are about a topic.

She described the search function as “Google for the town hall.”

According to Keiser, “The different departments really see this as a win/win. The ability to search information immediately is where we need to go. This is an investment that will set the precedent how the Town of Porter will operate; it’s a big shift in how things have been done.”

Added Spanier, “For our detectives it’s like a gold mine. We want access to information we already have; it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”

He said Porter would join progressive, professional communities like Fishers that use a document-management system. A Bolt representative made a presentation to Porter officials last year about a system for the Police Department.

Councilman Dave Babcock asked if the town could pay-as-you-go or the whole town has to be installed at once. Keiser said department heads recommend one purchase. “We want to come once so we’re not piece-mealing this together.”

Councilman Jon Granat said 100 years of records will be a lot of documents to scan, and he questioned the $38,000 cost. Bollinger said that is a not-to-exceed amount, and Babcock’s motion to proceed was made on that basis. Vote was 3-0 with council members Micheal Genger and Todd Martin absent.

“Hopefully it’s a lot less than $38,000,” said Granat.

Posted 4/12/2010