Smart Phone Conservation Agent Application Information Communications Technology (ICT) Innovations State of Missouri - Department t of Conservation
B. Executive Summary In the state of Missouri, the Conservation Commission is charged with enforcement of Missouri s Wildlife Code. The Commission employs over 170 Conservation Agents within the Missouri Department of Conservation to cover the state of Missouri for this enforcement. Missouri regulates the harvest of fish and game through the use of permits. Deer and turkey harvests require hunters to check their game through an online system (TeleCheck). Agents do field checks where they approach anglers and hunters involved in hunting or fishing or in possession of harvested game to determine whether these individuals are following the Wildlife Code. Violators can be subjected to citations, fines and potentially even arrest. Historically, Conservation agents have worked with an information disadvantage when performing these field checks. Hunting and fishing often take place in remote areas of the state out of cell phone coverage and, at times, even out of portable radio coverage. Agents had limited access to a person s record of TeleChecks, permits, or arrests when conducting a field check. Violators could fabricate stories which the Agent would have to investigate by leaving the area of the field check, going home or to a location where they could radio or call in information to investigate a potential violator s story. This left potential violators with ample time to tamper with evidence or influence testimony. After evaluating several options, the Missouri Department of Conservation determined that it was possible to leverage both existing information systems and deployed agent smart phones to deliver up to date information on permits, TeleChecks, and arrest records to agents that they could access during a field check even when they were not in cell phone coverage. An application developed by Huber & Associates Inc. was downloaded to each agent s smart phone via micro SD storage card that allowed them to access past and present permits, violations and arrest records. The application was developed to be carrier agnostic. IT would synch data when in cell phone coverage and cache that data on the agent s smart phone to be accessible when out of cell phone coverage. The result is an easy to use application that reduces field checks from 40 minutes per check to 3 minutes a savings in time equal to one agent position per year. This savings in time alone means that the $118,775 investment in development of the application will be returned in a little over 1 year. The immediate intangible result is that now agents are able to investigate field checks on site in remote locations closing the gap in time for evidence tampering as well as protecting the safety of agents with vital information about violators in the first moments of a field check.
C. Description of the Business Problem and Solution The problem facing Conservation agents in Missouri was how to gain instant access to information regarding permits, TeleCheck and arrest records while performing field checks in remote areas of Missouri. These field checks often required agents to walk into a camp of armed hunters in forested valleys miles from cell phone or radio coverage. Agents required arrest information in order to quickly determine personal safety issues when engaging potential violators. Furthermore, they needed access to enough information to be able to perform an investigation on site so that violators would not be permitted time to tamper with or destroy evidence of illegal wildlife harvest. Information on permits, TeleChecks and arrest records was already available to agents. However, some of this data was accessed via legacy desktop applications and other data was accessible via web applications. While a smart phone was capable of accessing all of this information while in broadband cell phone coverage, the information was not located in one application or database and none of it could be accessed when the agent was in a remote location and out of coverage. Agents already were being issued smart phones to cover a growing need for technology in their work. Smart phones cover an agents need for cameras to capture evidence during an investigation, communication via phone, email or instant message, and network connectivity for their work computer (because of their remote work, many agents work out of their homes in rural locations). However, agents are law enforcement officers and, as such, needed any use of their smart phone to be as intuitive and quick as possible. Forcing an agent to search through several applications, figure out how an application worked, or forcing them to walk to a new location with an armed potential violator to get cell phone coverage endangered an agent s safety and control of the situation. The remote nature of field checks ruled out the possibility of building a smart phone or web application that would access permit, TeleCheck and arrest records from a central location. The data and application would have to reside on the phone. Because the data could change by tens of thousands of records per day, the phone would have to have a method by which it could update the data when in cell phone coverage. In addition, this data would have to be secured so that personal information of Missouri permit holders was not endangered should an agent s phone be lost or stolen. The sheer size of the data the phone would have to hold provided its own challenge. Records for any permit, TeleCheck and arrest record in Missouri will not only be kept on the phone for the current year, but for three years or more. This results in a set of databases with over 8 million records weighing in at over five gigabytes.
A final challenge involves battery life and broadband billing of the smart phone. If the phone attempted to synch data too frequently, the attempts would seriously shorten battery life. In addition, if data were synched inefficiently, agent phones would overrun their allotted data transfer plan and the Department of Conservation could be charged significant overage fees. The need for a flexible method of deploying the application to select phones as well as the need to work with existing smart phones used for tethered network connection across several cell phone vendors ruled out the use of the ios (Apple OS) as a smart phone application platform. The need for a native SQL database with the capacity to manage large data sets on the handheld device further reduced application frameworks to the Windows 6.5 Mobile OS. The data required for this application already existed in legacy systems or central office web applications. However, it was not viewable in one location. The best solution to leverage this resource was to develop a set of secure web services that could access this data, determine what new records would need to be sent to individual phones and then develop a smart phone application that could securely access these services and store the data. With OS and limited set of devices selected, work was ready to begin on the application. Huber & Associates, Inc. was engaged to develop the smart phone application. The vendor demonstrated a history of working within the Windows 6.5 mobile environment and proposed an innovative solution for dealing with the large data set to be managed on the phone that solution being the management of the data over roughly 70 separate databases on the smart phone. The application was developed with key features designed to meet the challenges presented. Agents have an option to monitor data set total size and remove older records should the need arise in future years. Otherwise, the agent is free to keep as many years worth of data as needed. Individual agents also are able to personalize the synch behavior of the phone so that power consumption is maximized and tailored to the daily habits of the agent as their work changes throughout the year. The application and initial data is deployed to the agent s existing smart phone via a micro SD storage card. Data on this card is encrypted to the phone so that data on the card cannot be read on any computer or other phone that does not have the application installed. In addition, each phone s access is pass-coded by policy so that only the agent can access the phone and application via their unique code. Further, each phone and card can be wiped via Microsoft Exchange should the phone be lost or stolen. Lost and stolen phones also can be flagged in the central web services to be wiped should a rogue application attempt to synch data.
During the development of the application, a further refinement of the agency s smart phone replacement strategy reduced the current small number of smart phone devices to one Motorola model that all major cell phone carriers supported and which would support the Windows Mobile 6.5 framework for additional years as Microsoft moves to Windows 7 Mobile. This shift in the device strategy by the agency with the existing application development strategy resulted in an application/device solution that is carrier agnostic. Development of the application was contracted, but with one caveat. The contractor was required to develop using an agile process with development sprints of roughly two weeks. Agents and agency IT staff would be involved in a two week review of the features of the application that had been developed thus far. This agile process ensured that agents could provide input on the look and function of the application. IT staff could provide feedback on how the application performed both in terms of network function and utilization of the phone s capabilities. The result was a product that was intuitive to agents and which conformed to the agency s IT needs. Work began on the application in May of 2010 with an initial group of agents reviewing iterations of the application in June of 2010. The finalized application was deployed to all agents in October of 2010 just prior to the opening of fall hunting seasons. The application was installed via micro SD cards to smart phones that had been distributed from June 2009 to June 2010. The project continues to be in service (8 months in full production with a 4 month pilot and development phase). D. Significance of the Project The Missouri Department of Conservation was the first agency in the state of Missouri to produce a smart phone application that performed its tasks even when not in cell phone coverage. Our review of the industry indicates that this may potentially be the only application of its kind in terms of size of data and capacity to synch when in cell phone coverage. This project aligned with the agency s IT strategic area of focus to promote access of our information to our staff Anywhere/Anytime. It also aligned with state priorities to improve access to data for decision making. The significant improvement from this project is that the application reduced an agent s time spent performing a field check from an average of 40 minutes to an average of 3 minutes. In addition, an agent s ability to validate a hunter or angler s story against a permit, TeleCheck or arrest record database increased an agent s ability to quickly investigate and resolve an issue. The application leveraged existing data sets and existing smart phones. Further, as smart phone replacement strategy was refined, application development aligned for a better overall product.
The development of the application was done in an agile process. This meant that, within weeks of the application bid being awarded, agents could begin evaluating aspects of the application and providing feedback as the application developed. The end result is that by the time the application was complete, agents were already familiar with the product because they had been involved in the project. This agile process also produced a product that is intuitive a feature that helps preserve agent s safety as they use the product in field checks. E. Benefit of the Project Initial benefits were realized in the pilot phase as the application was being developed. As early as July, agents were able to perform investigations with the data they were provided. This is because the first goal of the application was to deliver actual data with additional query and synching capabilities being added throughout the summer and fall. Although the metric for this benefit was verbal feedback by the agents in the two week reviews, the benefit was pronounced. Agents reported field checks where an angler, for example, had initially stated that he was unaware he had to buy a particular type of annual stamp. When the agent was able to immediately pull up a permit purchase history, the agent found that the angler had regularly purchased annual stamps until the current year. When presented with this evidence, the angler admitted that he knew this and, was caught. The smart phone application dramatically improved information support to agents in the field. In the past, agents would either have to leave the field to investigate an issue at home or in a regional office, or, if they were in radio or cell phone coverage, call in to a regional office where they would verbally relay information to a clerk who would key the information into the existing systems and verbally relay the information back to the agent. This process was time consuming and often limited what questions an agent might ask due to this time constraint. In addition, this process could only be done during the regular workweek when a clerk was available to answer the radio or phone. The smart phone application could provide more timely information and provide it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The ready access to the information as well as the constant agent input during the development of the application resulted in agents being very supportive of the new application. Because they had been involved during the development, they understood the application and could even help other agents as the fall and winter seasons required increased used of the application. The intuitive interface means that agents in training will have an easier time learning to use this tool for field checks. This project provided an additional benefit in that data that the agency already managed was now made available to agents where and when they needed it most the remote
areas of Missouri where violations often occur. This benefit aligns with the NASCIO 2011 state CIO priority of, enhancing the role of data, information / intelligence, [and] knowledge management. Although this application did not replace existing applications, it did offer a new mechanism by which to access the data managed by these older applications. As such, it provided legacy application modernization (another NASCIO state CIO priority). The main metric of measure for benefit was time spent doing a field check. Agents were surveyed on their use of the smart phone application. The results found that, on average, agents used the application 25 times through the 2010 fall and winter season. With 172 agents, this amounted to 4250 uses in total for the season. With an average difference in a field check of approximately 36 minutes, time saved by the smart phone application in field checks alone totaled over 2500 hours essentially the FTE of an agent, and then some. With salary and benefits calculated to time (and when including a rough approximation of clerk time saved with no need to call or radio to obtain this information), the savings total a little over $111,000. The application thus almost paid for itself throughout the pilot and winter hunter seasons (approximately 9 months). With the replacement strategy for Windows 6.5 phones projecting a stable platform for the next 3 years, this application will easily provide a return on investment and will lay the groundwork for additional mobile applications for use in the management of fish, forest and wildlife. The agent smart phone application developed for the Missouri Department of Conservation demonstrates how mobile technology can deliver regulatory data into the field where law enforcement requires it. This development can be outsourced while still maintaining control and vision of the final product. Such development can be aligned with business and IT strategic goals to produce a product that is cost effective and which provides another tool for Missouri Conservation Agents. The primary emphasis of the application was to put additional information into the hands of Missouri s Conservation Agents to help reduce the number of wildlife code violations and to help prevent hunters and anglers from cheating the system. The end result is an enhanced enforcement of the state s wildlife code as well as an additional deterrent to keep folks honest. While it is safe to say that we will easily get a return on our investment very quickly, it is perhaps more important to say that through this technology and new application we are in an even better position to protect the priceless wildlife and fish resources of the State of Missouri.