Santa Barbara Police Department

Police Agency Boosts Officer Presence, Data Security with Upgraded Operating System

Like other law enforcement agencies, the Santa Barbara Police Department relies heavily on computer technology to help serve the community. The department, which serves a city of about 100,000 residents north of Los Angeles, wanted to implement better productivity tools for employees, particularly officers out on patrol. It also wanted to enhance the security and manageability of its computer environment to reduce the workload of its small IT staff. To accomplish these goals, the department deployed Windows Vista® and other Microsoft® software, including Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 and Microsoft Forefront™ client security products. The result is substantial cost savings due to greater productivity for police officers, better tools to allow officers to work quickly and safely, increased safety for the department’s data and IT assets, and an easy-to-administer IT environment.

Situation

The Santa Barbara Police Department provides community policing and outreach for about 100,000 residents of Santa Barbara, a city located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles. The city’s 43 square miles are protected by a departmental staff of 216 employees, including 140 police officers.

Windows Vista and the other Microsoft technologies will help our employees take community policing to the next level by providing better law enforcement … and enhanced day-to-day services.  Cam Sanchez Chief Santa Barbara Police Department

The Santa Barbara police rely on computer technology to perform tasks ranging from dispatching and reporting to looking up data on court cases and getting data about crime scenes. The department had desktop and portable computers running the Windows® XP Professional operating system, mobile data computers, handheld computers used for parking enforcement, and peripheral equipment, including scanners, cameras, plotters, and printers. Because this equipment is vital to law enforcement and public outreach tasks, the department wanted to find an optimized solution that would provide tighter integration of the various components.

“We also wanted to enhance our security to protect against Internet-based threats and potential theft of our mobile devices. We already had good security in place, but software viruses are a constant threat, plus we have a lot of highly confidential information on our portable PCs,” says David Straede, Network Administrator for the Santa Barbara Police Department. “Additionally, we wanted to deliver better productivity tools to our staff, particularly officers out on patrol, and deploy technologies that could provide tighter integration all around while helping reduce the workload on our IT department.”

Solution

The Santa Barbara Police Department decided to upgrade its PCs—about 180 computers—to the Windows Vista® Enterprise operating system, which replaces the Windows XP Professional operating system that the department had in place. During the deployment of Windows Vista, which occurred in mid-2008, the department simultaneously installed Microsoft® Office Enterprise 2007, replacing Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003.

“We wanted to provide our users with the next generation of Office so they could take advantage of its new features, while delivering a richer experience that would come when combined with the Windows Vista operating system,” says Straede. “We decided that deploying the operating system and Microsoft Office software at the same time would provide a big boost in the number of tools available to our personnel.”
 
To meet its goal of enhanced security, the department also deployed Microsoft Forefront™ Client Security, which helps detect and eliminate viruses and spyware. Additionally, it deployed Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server, which integrates multiple scan engines to protect the department’s messaging environment from viruses, worms, spam, and other Internet-based threats.

The IT department used Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to quickly and efficiently deploy the upgraded operating system, productivity applications, and several Windows-based line-of-business applications across all desktops and portable computers. Prior to the deployment of Windows Vista, the IT department did some testing to ensure compatibility with its existing applications. “Our testing showed that all but two of our applications worked very well under Windows Vista,” says Straede. “And those programs were integrated through some small changes made during the installation of Windows Vista.”

The IT staff uses the group policies in the Active Directory® service, part of the Windows Server® 2003 operating system, to establish user identities and permissions for logging on to the network, and Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 to monitor the health and availability of desktops and servers.

Benefits

The Santa Barbara Police Department has found that its new solution boosts the security of the agency’s IT systems against malicious software and hardware theft. It also enhances the productivity of employees, including officers in patrol cars who now have easy and secure wireless access to the same applications and data as department employees working out of agency offices. In addition, the IT department has an easier time deploying and managing vital operational software systems. All of these benefits add up to a department that can run more efficiently and serve the community more effectively. 

We wanted to deliver better productivity tools to our staff, particularly officers out on patrol, and deploy technologies that could provide tighter integration all around while helping reduce the workload on our IT department.  David Straede Network Administrator Santa Barbara Police Department

“The solution delivers an optimized desktop environment that provides tighter integration, better security, and simplified management to all of our desktops, along with the integrated search capabilities of Windows Vista,” says Straede.

Improves Security

The tight integration of Windows Vista with the Forefront client security products is helping the department reduce the level of risk posed by Internet-based threats that could infect PCs.

“In the past, maintaining the health of our PCs in a secure environment was a real challenge,” says Straede. “Security is critical for our operations, and we feel that by deploying Windows Vista, we now have the most secure client operating system available.”

As part of its enhanced security effort, the department is using Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption, a data protection feature available in Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Vista Ultimate.

“The BitLocker Drive Encryption in Windows Vista offers enhanced protection against data theft or exposure on computers that are lost or stolen, and it provides more secure data deletion when computers are decommissioned,” says Straede. “This is an added element of security for us. If a patrol car is vandalized or stolen, it is good to know that the computer in the car—and all the sensitive information that it contains—will be protected if someone tries to access the hard drive.”

Forefront Client Security integrates tightly with the desktop environment to provide greater protection against Internet-based threats that could seriously compromise the security and performance of the department’s systems.

Helps Put More Officers on the Streets

Windows Vista, combined with the 2007 Microsoft Office system, gives departmental employees, particularly officers on patrol, a way to work more efficiently.

“With our mobile systems running Windows Vista and Microsoft Office programs, it’s easy for officers to securely create and file reports while sitting in their patrol cars. The reports are then sent wirelessly to our Records division,” says Marylinda Arroyo, an officer in the police department’s Detective division.

The department estimates that this in-car reporting saves about 60 minutes per officer per day, adding up to about U.S.$250,000 in annual savings. This also adds up to a better law enforcement presence throughout the city. “By implementing Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 in our patrol cars, officers can avoid time-consuming trips to the station to fill out paperwork,” says Straede. “This puts the equivalent of two extra officers on the street every day. Plus, having the identical computing environment in the patrol cars and back in our offices provides complete transparency, making it easy for officers to move from one location to another.”

Officers also are more productive by using features that are integrated with Windows Vista, such as Instant Search, and speech recognition functionality.

Windows Vista provides a stable, easy-to-manage environment for PCs in our offices and for mobile devices in the field.  Dennis Diaz Application Analyst Santa Barbara Police Department

Arroyo adds that many officers are not proficient in typing, so the speech recognition is appreciated. “The speech recognition lets officers talk into the microphone to dictate while at the same time keeping an eye on what’s going on around them. It contributes to the safety of officers.”

Eases Administration Tasks

The IT department enjoyed a straightforward deployment of the solution and is similarly pleased with day-to-day administration, which is simplified with tools such as the Active Directory service and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager for tasks such as deploying software and configuring PCs.

“Windows Vista provides a stable, easy-to-manage environment for PCs in our offices and for mobile devices in the field,” says Dennis Diaz, Application Analyst for the Santa Barbara Police Department. “It’s easy to remotely manage and protect mobile devices because they are all on the same operating system. And it’s easy to set up users on new PCs. With Windows Vista, we’ve standardized on a single image to deploy all of our hardware and software, in contrast to the past when we had to work with several different images. With Windows Vista, we have a stable platform that makes the job of the IT department easier.”

Straede adds that another important benefit of running Windows Vista is that it works so well with other system products such as Forefront Client Security. “We know that Forefront Client Security will run perfectly on Windows Vista and that it runs seamlessly with the other Microsoft products we’re using.”

Enhances Police Efforts

Cam Sanchez, Chief of the Santa Barbara Police Department, says the deployment of the new technology will help the department’s ability to serve the Santa Barbara community.

“Windows Vista and the other Microsoft technologies will help our employees take community policing to the next level by providing better law enforcement, better communications, and enhanced day-to-day services,” says Sanchez. “We can be on the street more, and we’ll be able to service our community even better than before. It can help us take community policing to the next level.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/

For more information about Santa Barbara Police Department products and services, call (805) 897-2300 or visit the Web site at:
www.santabarbaraca.gov/government/departments/police  

Windows Vista

Windows Vista can help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to find and use information more effectively. You will be able to support your mobile work force with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows Vista, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista 

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published September 2008