Wichita police seek to change records system a few years after installing one. Here’s why

Wichita police will ask the City Council on Dec. 10 to approve purchasing a new records system while phasing out a relatively new system the department has had problems with.

Officers have struggled with NicheRMS365 since they started using it in April 2021. Among the issues: officers were tied up in the system longer, which increased response times; problems writing tickets that caused many officers to write paper tickets; inaccurate crime data reports; and problems delivering crash reports to a state agency.

“We need to be efficient stewards of taxpayers’ investments into public safety, and we cannot continue spending money on a system that isn’t meeting the needs of our community,” Capt. Aaron Moses said in an email. “NicheRMS was not meeting the needs of our officers or partners, leading to inefficiencies, delays, and challenges with data sharing.”

NicheRMS365 co-founder Roland Schneider did not respond to two emails asking him to comment.

The Niche system was said in 2021 to cost $2.7 million. It is unclear how much of that has been spent.

Police now want to purchase Axon RMS, which Moses said “will provide a more modern, integrated solution that supports smoother workflows, better data tracking, and greater transparency.”

The city already contracts with Axon for its officer safety program, which includes body cameras, Tasers and drones, among other services.

The department seeks approval to amend its current contract with Axon to include its records management system. That contract runs through 2033.

A report included in the council agenda says the cost to implement that system over eight years would be $3.5 million. However, the report says, the actual cost of the switch would be $1.3 million after taking into account savings from eliminating the contracts with Niche and two other systems. Axon will also replace a system that tracked use of force and traffic pursuits and one that served as an interface with the county jail records system.

“Axon RMS provides a more integrated and streamlined solution with user-friendly features … and better interfaces for data sharing with other systems,” Moses said in an email. “This transition ensures WPD staff have the tools they need for more efficient operations, increased transparency (by being able to more easily provide crime data), and better support for community oversight (by being able to better provide complaints against officers to the Citizen Review Board).”

Police are asking to replace NicheRMS365 with Axon without going out to bid, which is allowed under city code “when services procured are only available from a sole source, and/or involve security matters or high technology.” Axon is expected to be implemented in late 2026.

Records management systems typically have a much longer lifespan than the 3.5 years, so far, that the Wichita Police Department has had NicheRMS365. WPD’s record system before that, which was bemoaned by WPD executives and council members at the time as being long outdated, was in place for just over 20 years.

Problems with Niche

“The decision to transition away from Niche RMS was finalized this fall after careful consideration of feedback from (WPD) staff,” Moses said, adding that since Chief Joseph Sullivan’s arrival in November 2022, about 18 months after NicheRMS365 started, “it became clear that Niche … was not meeting the needs of employees or streamlining workflows.”

Officers previously told The Eagle how they still had to use multiple programs during investigations and said it was cumbersome to enter information on certain cases, including on thefts where multiple items were taken.

NicheRMS365 was supposed to get officers away from using paper for much of their reporting. Using paper meant reports then would have to be manually entered into the computer.

NicheRMS365 has the ability to write tickets all electronically, but it hasn’t worked well for many officers, Moses said.

“Most of our citations are currently handwritten, NicheRMS does include a built-in citation program through a charge-guided entry form,” Moses said. “However, challenges with that system have led many of our employees to return to paper citations that then must be manually entered into NicheRMS by Case Desk staff.”

The system also led to a backlog of several thousand crash reports that caused the state to warn Wichita it could lose out on millions of dollars in road funding if it the backlog wasn’t fixed. The city used extra staff and authorized overtime to get it done.

Sullivan previously told The Eagle that “undoubtedly Niche is contributing” to the problem of response times as it held officers up on calls for longer.

Another problem has been getting accurate crime data.

Wichita police crime data has had problems in the past aligning with what the department sends to the FBI and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Axon, Moses said, will ensure officer reports are validated for accurate crime data.

NicheRMS365 serves law enforcement agencies in at least four countries. Not all have had problems with the records system.

“We are not experiencing the same issues with Niche as our primary report writing system and do not currently have any plans to utilize a different system,” said Alayna Gonzalez, a spokesperson for Kansas City Missouri Police Department which adopted the system in 2016.

WPD is taking additional steps on this go-around to ensure that Axon is implemented with better ease.

Implementing the new system

Police chalked up some of the initial problems with Niche to issues with training officers to use the system.

Along with the Axon contract, police are asking the council to fund five full-time positions that will be dedicated to training and oversight of the records management system. To fund an estimated annual cost of $561,234 for these positions, staff expects to “eliminate an equivalent or greater number of vacant City positions” in police records, municipal court or IT, according to information included in the council agenda packet.

Part of this amended contract will require Axon to build an interface so its record system can communicate with other software, including the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office’s Tyler Technologies, which was a problem with NicheRMS365 that left WPD officers at the jail, and off of patrol, for longer periods of time.

“Axon has experience building interfaces with Tyler products in other jurisdictions,” Moses said. “Based on the experience with the product, we expect the interface between Axon RMS and Tyler systems will be smooth and effective ensuring seamless communication across platforms.”

One other benefit of the new system should be more availability of data, Moses said.

“Part of our vetting of the system included discussions related to the Citizen Review Board and ability to support the efforts of staff to support that board,” Moses said. “This includes providing data related to use of force, complaints, investigations, and case summaries in a more automated way.”

The lack of data available to the CRB has been a complaint of some community members and current and former CRB members.

This story was originally published December 6, 2024 at 1:24 PM.