KEY IDEAS:
- Patrol officers at the Menifee Police Department lacked real-time access to critical information in the field, limiting situational awareness and increasing risk during calls for service.
- Fragmented, non-mobile police systems delayed access to safety data, forcing officers to rely on dispatch or manual workflows instead of immediate insights.
- Data integration enables law enforcement officers to access unified, digestible information, helping them identify risks and prepare before arriving on scene.
- With access to mobile-friendly unified data, Menifee PD’s patrol officers can improve situational awareness, make safer decisions, and achieve better outcomes.
💡 MENIFEE POLICE DEPARTMENT (MPD) AT A GLANCE:
Location: Menifee, California
Established: 2020
Population: Approx. 117,041
Sworn count: More than 90
Total personnel: More than 120
Sources: MPD, City of Menifee (2), U.S. Census
MENIFEE, Calif. — The daily realities patrol officers face are often not considered by technology providers. Most field technology is wearable hardware, like body-worn cameras, and most software isn’t truly optimized for the field. But an officer walking into an unknown situation needs critical information in the palm of their hand.
For patrol officers, every call for service requires fast, informed decision-making. Without real-time access to information about individuals, locations, and potential risks, officers are forced to operate with incomplete context, which limits situational awareness and increases risk.
At the Menifee Police Department in California, fragmented systems made it difficult for officers to access the information they needed in the field. To improve situational awareness and officer safety, Menifee PD turned to data integration to deliver real-time, mobile access to critical insights.
Fragmented, non-mobile data puts patrol officers at risk
Whether responding to calls for service or making arrests, field officers continually enter unknown and potentially dangerous situations. Officers need immediate access to digestible information, including:
- Information about people who’ve had felony warrants issued, to increase officer and suspect safety when those individuals are apprehended
- Where registrants — people who’ve committed violent crimes or sex offenses — live
- Officer safety notes associated with addresses, like if someone at an address has a history of mental illness, is connected to crimes involving firearms, or has a violent dog on the premises
🔎 WHY IS REAL-TIME INFORMATION CRITICAL FOR PATROL OFFICERS?
- Officers make split-second decisions in rapidly changing situations.
- Lack of context increases risk in the field.
- Immediate access to information improves safety and response outcomes.
However, getting that information is a cumbersome process. Most police software wasn’t designed to be used in the field, leaving officers to navigate unintuitive designs or wait as analysts track down pertinent information. Often, field officers struggle with information overload, and they don’t have a way to isolate the most useful insights. Without real-time, mobile access to critical data, officers are forced to make decisions without full situational awareness.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Without mobile, real-time access to unified data, patrol officers lack the situational awareness needed to safely respond to incidents.
At Menifee PD, critical safety data was siloed and hard to access
Like many police agencies, Menifee PD grappled with data silos. The agency’s information was scattered across disconnected systems, leaving analysts to manually sift through multiple databases to find timely information, then translate those insights to officers in the field. For example, finding warrant data was a challenging, cumbersome process. Field officers had no way to get that information for themselves in real time.
🔎 WHY IS WARRANT INFORMATION CRITICAL FOR OFFICERS IN THE FIELD?
- Patrol officers are responsible for apprehending these suspects and getting them off the streets.
- People with felony warrants issued are connected to serious, often violent crimes.
- Patrol officers need information like known addresses, picture(s), and known associates at a glance.
“To get warrant information, we’d have to go into a data warehouse and search for them one-by-one,” explained Nicole Epps, Crime Analyst at the Menifee Police Department. “But partial searches didn’t work and there were no photos, so it took a lot of work to make the data remotely useful for patrol officers. We had similar issues with the California Sex and Arson Registrants database.”
As a result, even when critical data existed, officers couldn’t access it in a timely manner.
Without real-time access, officers rely on slow, manual workflows
Fragmented data slowed down workflows for all personnel at Menifee PD. And if a tool poses challenges for an analyst at HQ, it’s even less effective on a patrol officer’s mobile device in the field.
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“We’d either print out packets with information about people who’ve had felony warrants issued or our patrol officers would have to call dispatch,” continued Epps.
The extra time to call dispatch or look through a printed packet puts officers at risk. Fragmented data slows workflows and creates gaps in situational awareness. These gaps can directly impact officer safety and outcomes in the field.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: When critical data is siloed across systems, officers cannot access the information they need in real time, limiting situational awareness and increasing risk in the field.
How mobile, unified data improves situational awareness for patrol officers
To close these gaps, Menifee PD needed a mobile-friendly, unified data platform that could deliver critical information to officers in real time. Effective integration solutions highlight key insights in a single platform, enabling personnel to quickly search across multiple systems and find what they need. Mobile-friendly integration platforms allow field officers to access and action information in seconds, rather than waiting for analysts to manually comb through databases.
💡 HOW DOES MOBILE DATA ACCESS IMPROVE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS?
- Provides instant access to critical insights in the field
- Eliminates delays from dispatch or analysts
- Helps officers prepare before arriving on scene
With access to actionable, digestible insights, patrol officers can make better decisions, respond effectively to new situations, and keep themselves and their communities safe:
- If a patrol officer knows an individual may have a history of mental illness, they can be better prepared when responding to a call for service.
- If someone calls 911 reporting domestic abuse, it’s good for the officer to know if the suspect has been connected to incidents of domestic abuse in the past.
- If a patrol officer is heading to a house, knowing about registered firearms in the house in advance keeps everyone safe.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Mobile, unified data platforms give officers instant access to critical insights, improving decision making and safety in the field by...
- Connecting information across multiple data sources
- Reducing information overload and surfaces critical intelligence
- Increasing real-time awareness with historical data
How Peregrine gives Menifee officers real-time visibility and safer outcomes
To eliminate delays and give officers real-time visibility in the field, Menifee PD turned to Peregrine. Peregrine harmonized Menifee PD’s data sources, including historical data and real-time inputs, and brought them together in a single pane of glass. Using Peregrine, Menifee PD transformed how officers access, analyze, and act on information in the field.
Deliver real-time, mobile access to critical information
Using Peregrine, analysts and field officers have access to reliable, real-time insights that lead to better outcomes.
“I’ve truly been amazed at how easy it is to access information on mobile devices, in the field. I search for someone’s name, and I can see vehicles, known associates, and known locations, all the information I’m looking for. It’s so easy,” said Sgt. Joshua Fernandez.
💡HOW DOES REAL-TIME DATA HELP OFFICERS DURING ACTIVE CALLS FOR SERVICE?
- Provides critical context before arriving on scene
- Helps officers identify potential risks and individuals involved
- Enables more informed decision making in fast-paced scenarios
Visualize data and connections in the field
Using Peregrine, Menifee PD configured maps to give patrol officers immediate access to what they need: a single, geospatial view of last known locations for individuals with warrants issued or on registrant lists along with caution notes associated with various addresses. Instead of relying on dispatch or printed reports, officers now have critical information instantly available in the field.
READ MORE → Prioritizing Law Enforcement Officer Safety and Mental Health
Peregrine also surfaces the data officers want and information they need, even when they don’t know they need it. Peregrine’s smart, configurable heuristics automatically link data objects — like people, places, and things — across multiple systems together. Using Peregrine’s universal search, officers can immediately view connections across all of Menifee PD’s data sources.
Improve officer safety and decision-making
“With Peregrine, we can be more prepared. Seeing where individuals with outstanding felony warrants are allows us to do our jobs better, quicker, more efficiently,” said Fernandez. “The technology will benefit everyone in the city because we can get these people off the streets more quickly. Peregrine is what this county needs to take what we do to the next level.”
Real-time visibility helps Menifee PD’s officers prepare for new situations, increasing opportunities for de-escalation.
“We can actually reduce the likelihood of use of force because of the information we have in Peregrine,” explained Fernandez.
🔎 HOW DOES UNIFIED DATA HELP REDUCE USE OF FORCE?
- Gives officers context about individuals and locations
- Enables more informed, measured responses
- Increases opportunities for de-escalation
With mobile-friendly Maps and Search, all of Menifee’s patrol officers can:
- Find and apprehend suspects in violent crimes more quickly and easily
- Increase situational awareness to keep themselves and their community safer
- Adequately prepare for new situations to de-escalate and find peaceful resolutions
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: By giving officers real-time, mobile access to unified data, Menifee PD improved situational awareness and enabled safer, more effective decision-making in the field.
How real-time, unified data improves officer safety and outcomes
Patrol officers are often the first to respond in uncertain and rapidly evolving situations. In these moments, access to accurate, real-time information can make the difference between a reactive response and a well-informed decision.
By giving officers mobile access to unified data, Menifee PD has improved situational awareness across the department. Officers can now:
- Identify risks
- Understand context
- Prepare for incidents before arriving on scene
- Look for de-escalation opportunities
- Better protect their communities
Using Peregrine, Menifee PD’s officers have access to better information so they can respond with confidence. The Peregrine team has worked side by side with patrol officers and their supervisors across multiple law enforcement agencies to learn about the kind of information field officers want in the palm of their hand when responding to calls for service or making arrests. To understand how Peregrine can help prepare your patrol officers, contact us today.
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