As students prepare to return for the fall semester, public safety agencies—especially campus departments and municipal teams near academic institutions—are gearing up for one of their busiest times of year. With increased calls for service, compliance reporting, and new officer onboarding, even the most organized departments can get overwhelmed.
That’s why now is the perfect time to automate critical workflows. By removing manual steps from time-consuming processes, your team can respond faster, stay compliant, and operate more efficiently under pressure.
Below, we highlight three public safety workflows your agency should automate before students arrive—and how doing so can save hours each week during the upcoming rush.
Why Automation Matters Ahead of the Fall
The beginning of the academic year often brings a sharp uptick in incident reports, calls for service, campus-specific safety requirements, compliance documentation, and internal communication demands.
These seasonal spikes tend to coincide with staff onboarding and evolving departmental protocols, creating a perfect storm that can overwhelm manual processes, introduce costly errors, and delay response times. Automation helps eliminate this friction.
With the right systems in place, agencies can automatically generate and route reports, ensure accurate data handling with minimal manual input, and improve internal communication and situational awareness—all of which are critical during the busiest months of the year.
Workflow #1: Clery & NIBRS Reporting
The challenge: Clery Act and NIBRS reporting are vital but often tedious, especially when done manually. Missed classifications or late submissions can result in audits, fines, or loss of public trust.
How automation helps:
- Automatically tag and categorize incidents according to Clery and NIBRS rules
- Schedule reports to generate weekly, monthly, or on-demand
- Reduce compliance errors with built-in validation tools
This streamlines the reporting process and gives compliance teams peace of mind, especially during periods of high activity.
Workflow #2: Property & Chain of Custody
The challenge: When property or evidence changes hands—whether it’s logged at a crime scene, processed at headquarters, or moved to storage—it’s essential to maintain a clear, verifiable chain of custody.
How automation helps:
- Barcode scanning for check-in/check-out simplifies evidence handling
- System-generated custody logs ensure accurate tracking
- Automated status updates help teams monitor property in real time
This not only reduces the risk of misplaced or mishandled evidence but also keeps your agency fully audit-ready at all times.
Workflow #3: Incident Notifications & Alerts
The challenge: Important updates can get buried in inboxes or missed altogether, especially when team members are juggling multiple shifts or new routines.
How automation helps:
- Create rule-based alerts for specific incident types or case approvals
- Instantly notify supervisors, investigators, or dispatchers via email or SMS
- Eliminate the need for follow-up calls or manual reminders
With automated notifications, your team stays informed and responsive—no matter how busy things get.
How ARMS Supports Workflow Automation
ARMS was built with automation at its core, and each of the workflows outlined above is fully supported through our integrated CAD/RMS platform, designed specifically for public safety teams. To prepare for the fall semester, ARMS enables agencies to automate incident classification, report scheduling, and formatting for Clery and NIBRS compliance, ensuring submissions meet federal standards with minimal effort.
Our RMS’ property module supports barcode scanning, digital chain-of-custody logs, and automated property status updates, making evidence management seamless and audit-ready. For communication, the built-in Notification Manager allows teams to configure real-time alerts for case status changes, report approvals, dispatch outcomes, and more—keeping everyone informed without manual follow-up.
With unlimited data storage, site licensing, and a secure cloud-based infrastructure, ARMS allows agencies to scale their automation without incurring added costs or infrastructure burdens.
Start Now to Stay Ahead!
The fall semester is approaching quickly—and with it, a surge in activity that your systems need to be prepared for. Automating key public safety workflows now will help your agency save time, reduce manual data entry, maintain compliance with Clery and NIBRS requirements, and improve both response speed and internal communication.
Whether you’re overseeing a university campus, a K–12 school district, or a nearby municipality, ARMS equips your team with the tools to manage higher workloads without overburdening your staff.
Ready to streamline your operations before the fall rush? Contact us today to learn how ARMS can help you automate your most critical workflows.
