Challenge
An undisclosed government research facility was experiencing multiple issues with their manual process for managing their weapons. Officers were wasting a significant amount of time tracking down supervisors in order to manually log every item in and out. Also, even with meticulous manual records, one wrong character in a serial number could mean that government auditor records would not match up. Then, even more time was being wasted on going through pages and pages of manual records to search for errors.
In addition to these issues, a redesign project was needed for their armory space. The facility kept weapons in a large secured closet. Revolvers hung on pegs and long arms were secured on racks with locked chains strung through trigger holes. Anytime one long arm was unchained, the chain would have to move through trigger holes for all of the long arms. This was taking its toll by marring up the trigger areas over time.
Between the poor design of the armory space and the inefficiency of manually logging items in and out, a complete overhaul of the system was needed.
Solution
The Sergeant in charge of the armory had a vision of what he wanted – locker style weapon storage for the revolvers, and gun racks for long arms. In his search to see if this was possible, he came across LEID Products.
LEID Products’ engineering team worked closely with the Sergeant to install and set up LEID’s BACS™ Asset Management System. BACS™ provides the research facility with a state-of-the-art inventory database of all firearms. Authorized users access the self-service BACS™ ID Station kiosk via biometric identification to pick-up/drop-off of weapons identified via RFID. The new database provides government auditors with an accurate electronic accounting of inventory at all times.
The facility has the capacity to store a large number of weapons and assets in their Electronic Modular Access Units and long arms in their SmartRail Gun Racks.
Results
The BACS system has saved countless hours for both the officers and government auditors. Equipment is efficiently stored. Long arm trigger areas are no longer marred. Administrators now have 24/7 monitoring and control through remote, web-based asset management software. In addition, required maintenance is tracked – an unexpected bonus of the BACS System.
The 100 sworn officers now have quicker access to equipment, which is especially important in the event of an emergency. Officers have the authority to access only the equipment they have been qualified to use based on their training credentials. Real time inventory means all of their assets can be accounted for instantly.
The BACS database provides government auditors with an accurate accounting process for inventory complete with a biometric signature and RFID verification of each asset. This shortens the auditing process and avoids the wasted time of having to look through manual records to retrieve information.
“LEID has been very helpful in getting the system up and running. The response of LEID’s engineering team has been prompt and professional. The system is easy to use; we are all happy with the self-service ability and time saved.”
– Sergeant in Charge of the Armory