Automated key, weapon, and ammunition monitoring keeps police at the ready.

Despite its small size, the city of Saint-Mandé kept its Municipal Police force very busy. Being a small yet densely-populated suburb of Paris, Saint-Mandé had many public safety needs. Their police force kept an array of lethal and non-lethal weapons on hand, including Glock 17 pistols and ammunition, and tasers. They also stored many keys for city buildings, including all municipal buildings, their vehicle fleet, and keys for community housing so they could conduct wellness visits of disabled and elderly residents.

These weapons and keys were all important assets for the safety of Saint-Mandé, but for years, they relied on pen-and-paper logbook tracking to ensure accountability. Manual logging left the MP Director with little insight and control over when and where her officers signed out weapons and how they cared for governmental and community keys. She went so far as to install a camera in their storage room to better track who took weapons and keys, but tracking after the fact was only so useful. For example, she worried about what might happen if a suspended officer went to retrieve a weapon while they lacked real-time controls over their armory.

The Saint-Mandé Municipal Police had a small storage room. When they contacted ecos, they worried that electronic key and weapons management systems would not fit within their available footprint. The compact asset management lockers fit easily within the storage room. Officers could quickly and easily retrieve standard patrol kits, which included Glock 17 pistols, ammunition, a smartphone, and a telescoping baton. Ecos designed an asset management system that kept this standard kit in an individual locker and all shared equipment, including non-lethal weapons, in separate controlled storage.

Meanwhile, the Municipal Police moved all 180 keys for which they were responsible into a separate key management system. As the ecos technicians wrapped up their installation, they assisted the MP Director in training all police force personnel on how to use the storage systems.

ecos key control cabinet at Saint-Mandé Municipal Police	ecos weapon locker for tasers, guns and ammunition

Now, the Saint-Mandé Municipal Police have real-time, reliable insights into who has which keys, weapons, and other critical assets around the clock. The MP Director can now easily provision new access to all critical assets using predefined user groups in the ECOS software. “In day-to-day management, it’s very practical for granting or removing access,” she said.

They have eliminated paper logbooks for critical asset tracking. Everything can be traced more reliably using the management software embedded in the ECOS lockers. The MP Director can easily pull records whenever she has a question about how a vehicle was used, who expended rounds of ammunition, or why a mobile device was left uncharged. She can also prompt fleet vehicle drivers to log fuel consumption and maintenance issues.

The Saint-Mandé Municipal Police have a reliable, fully electronically traceable system for finding every key, device, weapon, and ammunition box in their inventory in seconds whenever they need information. This is all thanks to ecos key cabinets and high-security asset lockers.