Instructions
PUBLIC CONTACT INSTRUCTIONS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PURPOSE
The purpose of the Public Contact application is to provide a database for state and local law enforcement agencies to electronically report contact data per the requirements of Section 56 5 6560 of the South Carolina Code of Laws (below).
SECTION 56 5 6560. Collection of motor vehicle stop data regarding age, gender, and race of driver; development of database; reports.
(A) Any time a motor vehicle is stopped by a state or local law enforcement officer without a citation being issued or an arrest being made, the officer who initiated the stop must complete a data collection form designed by the Department of Public Safety that must include information regarding the age, gender, and race or ethnicity of the driver of the vehicle. This information may be gathered and transmitted electronically under the supervision of the department which shall develop and maintain a database storing the information collected. The department must promulgate rules and regulations with regard to the collection and submission of the information gathered.
(B) The Department of Public Safety shall develop and maintain a database for the information submitted to the department under subsection (A) and prepare a report to be posted on the department’s website regarding motor vehicle stops using the collected information.
(C) The General Assembly shall have the authority to withhold any state funds or federal pass through funds from any state or local law enforcement agency that fails to comply with the requirements of this section.
(D) This section must be reviewed by the Senate Transportation Committee and the House of Representatives Education and Public Works Committee during the 2010 Session of the General Assembly. The committees must make recommendations of appropriate changes, if any, to this section before the end of the 2010 Session.
DATA DESCRIPTION
In response to Section 56 5 6560, the data collected in the Public Contact application will be limited to the following:
• Only data for stops where a citation is NOT issued and an arrest is NOT made should be reported.
• Only the age, gender, and race/ethnicity of the driver of the vehicle should be reported.
• The Race/Ethnicity will be comprised of the following values:
o African American
o Hispanic
o White
o Other
• All data should be summarized and reported on a monthly basis by each agency.
• The data for a particular month should include only those stops that occurred in that month.
• If an agency does not have any data to report for a particular month, they should still create and submit a “blank” report for that month. NOTE: You will not have to enter any data for a blank report. The system will automatically populate each of the cells with a zero.
• The reports for a particular month should be submitted to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety (SCDPS) as soon as possible after the end of that month.
• The first month that agencies will be required to report will be July 2007. Agencies that want to report before the required date can report beginning with March 2007. NOTE: If you choose not to report data for March 2007, April 2007, May 2007, and/or June 2007, please create and submit a “blank” report for each of those months.
USER GUIDE
Logging In
Every participating agency will have one user account and one password. The user account and password will be mailed via postal mail to each agency head. This information should be given to the liaison within each Agency who will be responsible for submitting the monthly report.
The application’s Login screen is located at the following URL.
http://www.scdps.gov/publiccon...
At the Login screen,
1) select your Agency’s name from the drop down list,
2) enter your Agency’s designated password.
NOTE: The first time that you login to the application you will be prompted to enter an E mail address. This E mail address will be used in case you forget your Agency’s password.
Assistance for a Forgotten Password
Should you forget your password, do the following:
At the Login screen,
1) select the Forgot Password button.
At the Forgot Password screen,
1) select your Agency’s name from the drop down list,
2) select the Submit button.
NOTE: The system will automatically E mail the password to the E mail address that was specified during the “first” login (see NOTE above).
Getting Help
The Instructions button will display a .PDF file of these instructions.
If you have problems with the application, E-mail your questions to:
PublicContactSupport@scdps.gov
Entering Data
Once you have successfully logged into the application, the Main Menu screen will be displayed. The menu items are described below:
Create a New Report – this menu option is for creating a new report each month.
Edit an Un submitted Report – this menu option is for editing monthly reports that have been created but have not yet been submitted to the SCDPS. NOTE: Once a report has been created and saved, you can only edit the report using this option.
View Submitted Reports – this menu option is for viewing monthly reports that have been submitted to the SCDPS. NOTE: Once a report has been submitted to the SCDPS, it can no longer be edited.
The screen for each of these menu items is identical. The screen is designed as a matrix with race/ethnicity and gender serving as the row headings and age ranges serving as the column headings. Each cell of the matrix represents a particular demographic (for example, Hispanic Females between the ages of 46 and 55). Every month, each reporting agency will summarize their public contacts based on these demographics and enter the total number per demographic into the appropriate cells.
Create a New Report
From the Main Menu,
1) select the Create a New Report button.
From the Create a New Report screen,
1) select the appropriate month from the Reporting Month drop down list,
2) enter the summary data into the appropriate data cells,
NOTE: If there is no data for a particular cell, leave the cell blank. DO NOT enter 0 (zero) for the cell. The zeroes will be entered automatically.
3) when finished, select either the Save button or the Save and Submit button.
NOTE: The Save button saves the information that you have entered and allows you to edit this information at a later date. The Save and Submit button saves the information and submits it to the SCDPS. Once the data has been submitted, the data can no longer be edited.
4) to return to the Main Menu, select the Back button.
NOTE: The application is designed so that once a reporting month has been created and saved OR saved and saved and submitted, that particular month is no longer available in the Create a New Report drop down list.
Edit an Un-submitted Report
From the Main Menu,
1) select the Edit an Un submitted Report button.
From the Edit an Un submitted Report screen,
1) select the appropriate month from the Reporting Month drop down list,
2) select the Go button,
3) edit the appropriate cells as needed,
4) when finished, select either the Save button or the Save and Submit button.
NOTE: The Save button saves the information that you have entered and allows you to edit this information at a later date. The Save and Submit button saves the information and submits it to the SCDPS. Once the data has been submitted, the data can no longer be edited.
5) to return to the Main Menu, select the Back button.
NOTE: The application is designed so that once a reporting month has been submitted, that particular month is no longer available in the Edit an Un submitted Report drop down list.
View Submitted Reports
From the Main Menu,
1) select the View Submitted Reports button.
From the View Submitted Reports screen,
1) select the appropriate month from the Reporting Month drop down list
2) select the Go button,
3) select the Print button to print the resulting matrix.
NOTE: The application is designed so that only the reporting months that have been submitted will appear in the View Submitted Reports drop down list.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: To view multi-month information for a specific law enforcement agency, you can access report Public Contact 012 at: Public Contact 012
Printing
Whenever you select the Print button, a snapshot of the information that is on the screen at the time will be printed.
If not all of the columns print, change the orientation of the page from Portrait to Landscape and then re-print.
To change the page orientation,
1) select File from your browser’s drop-down menus. (The drop-down menus should be located across the top of the page.)
2) select the Page Setup option,
3) select the Landscape radio button,
4) select the OK button