Product & Development | 1999 – 2012
The people using these systems aren't software engineers. They're officers and administrators trying to do a job and save lives. The system had to work 100% of the time, be usable without training, and perform under the kind of pressure most software never faces. We built to FURPS: Functional, Usable, Reliable, Performant, Scalable. We built for 9/11. Literally.
Core C++ connecting to a Delphi front end, running on Paradox databases. The architecture was functional but aging — tightly coupled, hard to extend, and requiring on-site access to operate. As the state network grew and protocols multiplied, the system was showing its limits.
The rebuilt switch ran as a Windows service with a direct SQL connection — faster, more stable, and easier to maintain. The front end was rebuilt in C# and could run remotely from any authorized machine. More capabilities, a modern interface, designed for officers and administrators who needed to do their job without thinking about the software. We never wrote a user manual. Nobody needed one.
Led the beta launch of a State Interface Solution offering enhanced CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) interface capabilities — managing the full go-to-market cycle from requirements through rollout with state-level law enforcement stakeholders. In public safety, a beta launch means real dispatchers, real incidents, real consequences if something breaks. We shipped it right.
In the final years at Sungard I moved from building the current systems to defining what came next. I led product design for the next generation state interface system and took ownership of the product roadmap across the company's core public safety suite — shaping where each product was going and what it needed to become to serve law enforcement at a higher level.
Led product design for the successor to the state interface system — rethinking the architecture and user experience for what the network needed to be, not just what it was.
Managed the product future of the RMS — defining the roadmap for how law enforcement agencies would store, access, and act on records across the network.
Owned product direction for the mobile field application — bringing full system access to officers in the field, where the job actually happens.
Managed the product roadmap for Computer-Aided Dispatch — the real-time nerve center of any public safety operation, where reliability isn't a feature, it's the baseline.