Is this concept possible/feasible?
Hey everyone. So I am considering a very ambitious and complicated project and I wanted to get some experts opinion on if its possible first of all, and if I am on the right path with the right program to accomplish my goal. First some background:
I'm a police department sgt with a pretty significant background in computers - not an expert by any means.... but I do ok. I would like to come up with a way for the officers in my department (about 120 of them filing 9-10k reports a year) to be able to quickly and easily fill out reports for many different types of incidents. What this amounts to, is dozens of forms in dozens of situations all needing to be checked, signed off, and stored. I have a good idea of what I would like the final outcome to be and what I would like the end user process to be like. I would like to go over the possible features of the form(s) and what I have to work with and if possible, one of you experts tell me if its possible. Once I know that it can be done, I will find a way to make it happen - but if what I want is just impossible, it would be good to know right now before I invest time and money in a project that will never work.
Ok features:
1. Simple data entry. The officer needs to be able to fill out a pre-existing form (the form itself is state mandated and the final look can't really be modified, so at least I don't need to design a brand new form - just make it work!) with just tabbing across fields and typing in stuff. The form is anywhere from two pages long for a simple report, to several - depending on how complicated the incident is ie. how many people involved, how many cars, individual property.....
Now the information orginally filled out is basically the same information all over the different parts of the forms, as in case numbers, victim/suspect information (name, DOB, address, Hair, eyes. ect...), officer info... So one of the main things about the project is that the officer should only ever need to type stuff once. Having to type the same info in several forms is tedious and is the source of a huge waste of time. I understand how to make two fields display the same thing, so I'm sure that will be heavily utilized. The thing is, some reports need certain forms, and some don't. Am I going to have to have one massive document with every possible form and have them just print certain ones (or worse yet, make the supervisor sort thru dozens of forms to find the ones that are relevant), or can I have several individual PDF's that all draw from one source of information and combined to form one coherent report?
2. Existing information accessibility. One of the main parts of the form is identifying the charges. it could just be one charge, or several depending on how bad of a day the suspect is having 
. Anyway several pieces of information go along with any one charge - Say the person commits a simple battery. There will be a statute number, UCR number, if its a felony or misdemeanor, bond amount, what court the charge will be heard in... probably a couple more. But each one of those things is a different field somewhere in the overall form. I would like for the officer to pick the charge and all that information gets filled in to its relevant spot. Being able to manually fill that all in would be important of course in case something changes.
3. Drawing. I know it sounds goofy, but certain sections require a little bit of artwork. When documenting a DWI investigation, the person does a test like the walk-and-turn test and does a certain number of steps and certain things are observed and documented by the officer. I have a graphic of footsteps that the officer can make marks that indicate details of what the person did on each step. So really just being able to draw lines is enough and I'm sure that's something any adobe reader could do.
4. Digital signatures. Admittedly I have not done all the research on the subject as I could have (I'm sure I will at some point though!) but I need the officer to have their own code and "sign" the document, send it to a supervisor (via e-mail, or somehow within the existing infrastructure) who can also sign it, and send it on its way to records, detectives, ect... Later there should be a way to look at the document and see who signed it and when. I suspect that will be the easy part...
5. Narrative. Part of the report is a narrative field. I'm not worried about the short reports that will not take up much space on the form. The ones I'm worried about are the 6-7+ page reports that need to flow over several pages and maintain the same header and footer over each page that contains information from the first pages of the report. I have seen with the dynamic nature of Livecycle, this should be possible, I just want to be sure. And if the document ends up being one massive document with all possible forms, would this end up being an issue if the narrative pushes the forms below it downwards? I hope that makes sense... Once that narrative is done, it would need to automatically transfer to other parts of the form, as in the criminal complaint that has basically the same narrative, only for a different purpose and a very different header/footer.
6. Menu system? Aside from the form I have been talking about, there are dozens of other, unrelated but important forms we have to fill out. I would like some way for the officer to bring up some kind of a menu system to pick out what form they will need and click on it, taking them right to that form. I'm thinking maybe that Portfolio function I played with a little bit? if all the computers using this are on the same network, would it be possible to have the original forms in a central location so that changes could be made to one master form and they would be reflected whenever anyone accesses the form?
*Note, the following are a want - not a need - it would be awesome if it could do this, but I get that it might be way outside of the capabilities of the program to do this*
6. Macros? Pulling information from another program? We use a program on our mobile terminals that accesses NCIC (the federal database that keeps track of everyone with a drivers license or criminal record). That program can pull up basic data like name, address, age, dob, height, weight, and so on... Most of this information is usually what we end up putting in reports. It would be great to find a way to hit a hot key or a button or something, type in a DL number, and have a macro program run the number, get a return, and cut and paste the information in to the main form. That would save a massive amount of time filling in details that are already typed out somewhere. I know this might be a third party program and that's fine - I just need to know if its possible.
7. Voice recognition - I already know how this works, it just seemed worth mentioning if there is a better way of integrating it in the form. When it comes to the narrative, most experienced officers can sit there and rattle off exactly what needs to be in the report. Combining a program like Dragon Dictate would certain speed up this process.
Ok I think thats all the big parts. I have all the forms in excel now and set up to auto populate, but that is very limited and people whine about it being too complicated. So something new needs to be created. if you actually managed to read all the way to the end of this, I thank you for your time, attention, and expertise. Any guidence or thoughts are welcome and appriciated. If you need more info or want to see what the forms look like, just let me know and I will be happy to send you a copy.
Thanks again
Sgt Joel Holt
Rio Rancho PD
