Modern Software Helps Lollypop Farm Track Animal Cruelty Cases
Lollypop Farm has been protecting the animals of greater Rochester, New York for 150 years. Since its founding in 1873, the private, nonprofit organization has provided law enforcement services to investigate and prevent animal cruelty. Over the years, Lollypop Farm has grown into a regional animal welfare organization. Today it serves as the Humane Society of Greater Rochester and provides social services and programs that assist animals in need, from community outreach to low-cost spay and neuter programs. Despite its many service offerings, however, the organization stays true to its roots with a strong law enforcement branch.
Reno DiDomenico has served as Lollypop Farm’s Vice President for Humane Law Enforcement for the last 15 years. He oversees a team of officers dedicated to responding to reports of alleged animal cruelty and educating the community on proper animal care. Although the department responds mostly to reports concerning dogs and cats, his officers have worked with everything from mice, rats and rabbits up to horses and exotic animals.
Lollypop Farm’s Humane Law Enforcement team. Photo Courtesy Lollypop Farm
The Need for Case Tracking Software
For many years, Lollypop Farm’s shelter and law enforcement departments shared a software provider – but when the shelter side of the organization decided to move to a new provider, DiDomenico kick-started his own software search. “Unfortunately the software they picked was not very conducive to our investigative needs for documenting and tracking cases,” DiDomenico said.
After a quick search, DiDomenico found Comcate. “In the animal sheltering world, most software packages are geared to sheltering; they’re not really set up for cruelty or criminal investigations, which is what we strictly do. When I went to Comcate’s website and saw what the functionality was, I thought, ‘Wait a minute – this is what I have been looking for for years,” DiDomenico said.
The department made the decision to adopt Comcate’s Animal Control Manager, which allows them to document and track cases, as well as Comcate’s CRM, which the department’s office administrator uses to input calls from Lollypop Farm’s animal cruelty hotline. “Now everything is documented, so if somebody calls back two months from now to follow-up, we can look them up, find out how that call was handled and what resources were given to them,” DiDomenico said.
In addition to the new software, the department also contracted with Comcate to migrate data from their old software system to the new, giving the department 10 years’ worth of historical records.
Lollypop Farm serves the greater Rochester, New York. Photo courtesy Lollypop Farm
Making a Supervisor’s Life Easier
The Animal Control Manager’s ability to create, document and track cases has been vital for Lollypop Farm’s Humane Law Enforcement department. “It was very hard to track and keep an eye on cases in the old system,” DiDomenico says. “One of the features I like about Comcate is the ability to set times for when things need to be followed-up on.” The department has a 24-hour response time for initial cases, with follow-ups occurring within 10 days. “As a supervisor, I can go to one spot on the dashboard and see what cases are overdue to be revisited. Having that visibility is a benefit for me.”
DiDomenico also says the ability to integrate GIS data from the county has been useful. “We handle cases where a lot of houses are rentals,” DiDomenico says. “With GIS, we are able to find out who the property managers are instantly by putting in those addresses and contacting those property management companies, which helps save time when doing investigations.”
The Animal Control Manager’s reporting features have also been useful to the department. “It has made it easier to look up data and get numbers, whether it’s for board presentations, grant writing, or for our development team when they’re talking with donors to show them what we are actually doing.”
Reno DiDomenico, Vice President for Humane Law Enforcement for Lollypop Farm. Photo by Alex Rees, courtesy Lollypop Farm
Finding Budget
As a private, nonprofit organization, Lollypop Farm relies on grants and the generosity of donors to fund its operations. When DiDomenico saw the ability of Comcate's Animal Control Manager, he knew the software had the potential to increase his department's efficiency – but with no line item in Lollypop Farm's budget for software specific to the Humane Law Enforcement department specifically, DiDomenico had to get creative. He started reaching out to known donors that have a passion for the organization's law enforcement operations and eventually found two that were able to fund most of the cost of the software.
Moving into the Modern Era
Overall, the move to animal control-specific software with case tracking abilities has helped Lollypop Farm’s Humane Law Enforcement department continue to serve the animals of the greater Rochester area. “I think having this software has brought us more into the modern times,” DiDomenico said. “Our other software was very old. Comcate is a lot more user-friendly and easy to operate.”
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